Ketamine treatments are a mental health option that’s been gaining popularity recently, primarily due to their effectiveness and quick results. Ketamine can be beneficial for individuals with various diagnoses, including PTSD. Individuals with PTSD have found that ketamine can be extremely helpful with symptom reduction and emotional healing, so let’s dive into this topic further.
Ketamine Treatments
Ketamine treatments are typically based on an individual’s needs and current mental health situation. Some individuals receive their initial round of treatments and get enough benefits that continuation isn’t necessary. Others will continue ketamine boosters as a way of ensuring that they continue experiencing the benefits of ketamine.
Depression is one of the most common diagnoses treated with ketamine therapy. While ketamine can be extremely helpful for those dealing with depression, PTSD is another diagnosis that ketamine can help with.
PTSD and Ketamine
It’s estimated that 8.7% of individuals within the US have PTSD and those with high-risk jobs tend to be more likely to develop this diagnosis. PTSD can manifest itself in a variety of ways and be extremely difficult to cope with. There is a significant need for more complex and effective PTSD treatments, which is where ketamine comes into play.
Ketamine for PTSD is a subject that’s being widely talked about within research circles, as preliminary studies have shown promising findings. The current treatment recommended for many with PTSD is a combination of antidepressants and psychotherapy. While this combination can be effective, it doesn’t produce results nearly as fast as PTSD can. Additionally, this treatment approach doesn’t correlate with significant amounts of patients in remission.
While antidepressants and therapy can be a good approach, ketamine is another option for those dealing with PTSD symptoms. Ketamine performs specific actions within the brain that allow it to directly impact PTSD symptoms.
The NMDA receptor plays a large role in intrusive memory formation. Interestingly, ketamine is an antagonist to this receptor, meaning it can decrease negative memory formation. This has large implications for those dealing with PTSD, as it could potentially work to lessen PTSD symptoms.
Ketamine’s impact on memory will need to be continually researched. Its ability to impact negative memories and help individuals cope with them makes a compelling argument for its implementation into PTSD mental health treatment.
Ketamine can exhibit effects almost immediately after treatment. Some individuals note that they have symptom reduction after the first few sessions, while it may take more time for others to note benefits. Even if a few more treatments are required in order to see results, it’s likely that the ketamine effects would be much more timely than the results SSRIs would provide.
Examining the benefits of ketamine for those with PTSD is something that will need to continue. There’s a vast potential for ketamine to be one of the top recommendations for PTSD, so it’s essential that more people are made aware of its benefits.
If you’re interested in learning more about PTSD and ketamine, feel free to reach out to our staff and we’ll be happy to provide you with some more information.