From darkness to light: how ketamine transforms anxiety in a matter of hours. Taking too much ketamine is what Mathew Perry passed away from.
According to articles, there were 2 doctors who were involved in giving him the ketamine and they were charged along with a woman for his death.
Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic that can make a person feel calm and relaxed. Oh, like weed (sort of).
It can also make people feel detached from their surroundings and pain and produce some hallucinogenic effects.
These change a person’s perceptions, as well as make them feel disconnected and not in control.
Ketamine Side Effects
Moreover, the most common side effects of ketamine can include:
- firstly, confusion
- diplopia, or seeing double
- dizziness
- drowsiness
- dysphoria, or feeling significant uneasiness and dissatisfaction
- nausea
- lastly, vomiting
Other Side Effects of Ketamine May Include:
- firstly, agitation
- memory loss
- cognitive difficulties
- depression
- lastly, unconsciousness
Some people may experience a ketamine emergence phenomenon (EP), also called emergence delirium (ED). EP is a state of confusion as a person recovers from anesthetic including:
- firstly, euphoria
- vivid dreams
- illusions
- severe confusion and disorientation
- lastly, hallucinations
Effectiveness of Ketamine
From darkness to light: how ketamine transforms anxiety into the light of day. Scientists continue to investigate how effective ketamine is for several conditions, including anxiety disorders.
Phobias
Researchers who investigated ketamine for several mental health conditions in 2021 found it may be effective for treating certain phobias. Nonetheless, they found ketamine injections could help reduce the effects of:
- Agoraphobia: Agoraphobia is the fear of being in open or crowded spaces, leaving one’s home, or of being in places that are difficult to escape.
- Social phobia: In brief, social phobia is now known as social anxiety disorder. It is a fear of being watched or judged by others in a social situation.
- Blood injury phobia: Blood injury phobia, or blood injury-injection-phobia, is the fear of the sight of blood, injury, or mutilation.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Ketamine IV treatment can rapidly reduce symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, these effects are not generally long lasting.
Scientists have investigated combining ketamine IV therapy with psychotherapy to produce longer-lasting OCD symptom reduction. However, more research is necessary.
Generalized and Social Anxiety
Scientists evaluated the safety and effectiveness of weekly ketamine treatments for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and social anxiety disorder in 2017.
They found that people rapidly reported reduced anxiety after treatments, which lasted for up to 7 days.
Ketamine Pros and Cons
From darkness to light: how ketamine transforms anxiety from the depths of hell.
For people with TRD, debilitating anxiety, PTSD or cPTSD, ketamine infusion therapy offers several key advantages, including:
Fast-Acting Symptom Relief
Ketamine infusions work very quickly — often within hours — to ease depressive symptoms because of its glutamatergic effects.
As the main neurotransmitter that encourages the growth of synapses in your brain, glutamate helps strengthen and restore vital neural connections and pathways in the regions of the brain.
Likewise, they are most impaired by depression; these new connections help induce beneficial changes in brain circuit function.
Compared to a standard course of antidepressants of at least 8 weeks for a single trial, a series of ketamine infusions is completed in 3 weeks. That is 62% faster.
High Rate of Success
Ketamine infusion therapy is still being studied, but research shows that it has a high rate of success when it comes to treating moderate to severe depression, anxiety, PTSD, and bipolar depression.
Markedly, several studies indicate that over half of people with TRD achieve significant symptom relief after a single infusion, and many more find relief after two or three infusions.
However, most people do did to complete a minimum series of 6 to ensure that the results last after the series is over.
Lasting Symptom Remission
Ketamine infusion therapy isn’t a “one-and-done” treatment that “cures” anxiety in a single session.
It’s also not like conventional anti-anxiety meds that must be taken daily for years on end (or for as long as they work).
Instead, ketamine infusions stimulate beneficial brain changes that lead to lasting symptom relief over the course of a single treatment cycle.
Ketamine has an excellent safety record without the potential respiratory dangers presented by some other anesthetics.
Cons of Ketamine
From darkness to light: how ketamine transforms anxiety, but not without some disadvantages.
The drawbacks of ketamine have to do primarily with its dissociative effects, slight potential for addiction, and cost.
Although ketamine infusion therapy uses sub-anesthetic doses to relieve depression, it can still induce certain temporary side effects during the experience.
This includes mild hallucinations, floating sensations, fuzzy vision, and dizziness.
The potential for immediate side effects also means that someone else must drive you to and from your treatment session.
Also, ketamine infusions can sometimes bring up deep rooted traumas, and in facilities without properly trained mental health professionals, individuals can become very dysregulated afterwards.
Ketamine’s for Anxiety Cost
Last, the cost can be a substantial burden for individuals seeking ketamine treatment.
Other than very small companies like Enthea, ketamine infusions are not covered by insurance.
Since people with depression and PTSD are usually not working and barely scraping by financially, the cost of ketamine infusions can be a serious burden.
Luckily, there are other options that allow for patients to receive ketamine treatments by using insurance:
Spravato, a relatively new esketamine nasal spray, and the psychedelic medicine track of IOP, where patients can enroll in ketamine assisted therapy online.
Ketamine For Anxiety Dose
What is Very Low-Dose Ketamine?
From darkness to light: how ketamine transforms anxiety within succession.
A very low amount (microdose) of a substance that can deliver psychedelic effects at high doses but does not significantly alter consciousness at low doses is known as a “psycholytic” dose.
When a person ingests a psycholytic dose of ketamine, they can still function effectively in their daily lives, but the experience also opens their mind.
Therefore, many users of very low-dose ketamine report enhanced clarity and ability to focus on their work, improved productivity, an elevated mood, and lessened anxiety.
Neuroscientist John Lilly discovered the benefits of low-dose ketamine in the 1970s as he experimented with various self-administered doses over ten years.
Overall, contemporary researchers agree with his findings.
According to John Lilly, the following doses deliver vastly different effects.
- Very low doses of 25-50 mg deliver pain relief, engender feelings of love, compassion, and forgiveness, and a state of relaxation without a hallucinogenic effect.
- A 75-100 mg dose delivers a more profound experience that may include out-of-body sensations. Otherwise, it may help the user work through unresolved problems and process past trauma.
- A high dose of 150-200 is an intense experience and can be dangerous for someone with depression or anxiety. Nonetheless, the DEA warns when people use ketamine at this dose; it can trigger hallucinations, distort perceptions of sight and sound and make the user feel disconnected from reality.
Ketamine for Panic Attacks
From darkness to light: how ketamine transforms anxiety without panic attacks. There are several studies showing the benefits of ketamine for anxiety and panic attacks, including:
- One clinical trial of people with PTSD showed that 67% of participants responded to ketamine IV therapy, experiencing significant improvements 24 hours after the first treatment. Simultaneously, the average duration of relief was 27.5 days after the final session. Ketamine was well-tolerated by participants and did not cause any serious side effects.
- A study of ketamine’s effects on those with Social Anxiety Disorder showed that ketamine treatments had notably positive carryover effects 28 days after treatment.
- Anxious bipolar disorder is believed to be a more severe subtype of the condition, resulting in traditional treatments frequently being less effective. Specifically, this study shows that ketamine significantly reduces depression for those with anxious bipolar disorder just as effectively as those with non-anxious bipolar disorder.3
- Subsequently, a trial of ketamine IV therapy to treat OCD found that patients experienced rapid, significant reduction in symptoms during the first infusion, with effects lasting at least one week for 50% of participants.
What are the Risks of Ketamine IV Therapy?
There are many health factors to consider before beginning ketamine therapy. Hence, it is a powerful drug that is not the right choice for everyone. You should only get ketamine therapy from a licensed healthcare professional after a thorough health screening is conducted to ensure ketamine is a safe treatment for you.
Risks
People who are pregnant or breastfeeding should avoid ketamine therapy. Ketamine IV therapy is also not recommended for those with schizophrenia.
People with high blood pressure may experience dangerous side effects such as:
- Firstly, Aneurysm
- Aortic tear
- Uncontrolled high blood pressure
- Lastly, Heart attack
Ketamine may also cause:
- Firstly, Cognitive deficits (when administered to children)
- Liver dysfunction
- Unstable function of blood vessels or heart (causing abnormal heart rhythms or fluctuations in heart rate and blood pressure)
- Intracranial pressure release
- Lastly, Respiratory depression (due to overdose or treatment being given too quickly)
Sum It All Up
From darkness to light: how ketamine transforms anxiety into something special. So, ketamine has its advatages and disadvantages.
It works faster than most meds, but if not administered in low dosages, you can get a eurphoric feeling from it.
Also, I’m out because people with schizophrenia are not recommended to use it. Nor are women who are pregnant.
Although ketamine is not yet an approved FDA anxiety treatment, scientific trials have shown it may be effective in reducing anxiety.
Scientists continue to investigate ketamine treatments for anxiety disorders and several other mental health conditions. New meds always on the horizon. Until next time…
Articles About Ketamine For Anxiety
-Ketamine Therapy for Anxiety
https://www.healthline.com/health/anxiety/ketamine-for-anxiety
-Ketamine Infusions Show Growing Promise for Treating Anxiety and Depression
https://www.health.com/news/ketamine-infusion-treatment-anxiety-depression
-How Fast Does Ketamine Work for Anxiety
https://www.fmpm.com/how-fast-does-ketamine-work-for-anxiety
Have a Good One,
Cindee Murphy
“One Voice In The Vastness Of Emotions”
“Good humor is a tonic for mind and body. It is the best antidote for anxiety and depression… Also, it lightens human burdens. It is the direct route to serenity and contentment”.-Unknown
“The best use of imagination is creativity. The worst use of imagination is anxiety.”-Deepak Chopra
“Worry is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.”-Arthur Somers Rache, American author
“Anxiety is love’s greatest killer. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic.”-Anaïs Nin, French-born American writer
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