When Your Brain Won’t Work, Can Ketamine Improve Cognition?

What can you do when cognitive function skids to a slow crawl… how can you restore it?

Nelson clattered along the path that followed the lake. His shoes were loose and slapped the ground with each step. He could have stopped to tie them on more snugly, but who cared? He was frustrated and too tired to carry about his shoes. How to fix his situation? When your brain won’t work, can ketamine improve cognition?

He’d been really down for months now, but life had to go on. School had to go on. What could he do — tell them he wouldn’t be coming for awhile because he was ‘downa’?  Sounded to him like a great way to get a bucket of zeros.

But it was hard. He couldn’t think of answers to things he could normally answer or even figure out things he could usually figure out. He felt like a genuine nubster. Like gum you chew and chew and spit out, and there it is a sticky blob on the ground.  Like that. Useless. Unsightly. 

What do you do when your brain won’t work? He talked to his doctor about it last time he had an appointment. She said this was not an unusual thing to happen when you’re depressed. Okayyyyyy…but NOT HELPFUL.

Even if it was true, he needed a solution. Something that would get his mind working for him, rather than against him.

To be honest, he felt like he’d become stupid. Though he had been pretty sharp when he was growing up.  But this year, his junior year,  he felt like a real dim bulb and didn’t know what he could do about it. He had a feeling it was related to this depression. He used to have a great memory, and now… well, he didn’t.  He REALLY didn’t. He couldn’t remember what he’d learned, couldn’t figure things out. Just COULDN’T. ..this depression he was fighting… well it was biting the dirt. He needed his brain back. When your brain won’t work, can ketamine improve cognition?

He walked home with a guy, Roger, who also was seeing a doctor for depression. Nelson decided to talk to him about it and see if he could relate. Anyway, it was nice not having to pretend everything was fine. When they didn’t feel like talking, they didn’t.

“Hey man.”

“Hey man, what’s up?”

“Is something up with school? …or I mean, it seems harder right? Maybe I’m off or something. Like… can you keep your grades up?  Because I’m having a harder time thinking than I did before this year…and my grades are dropping…”

“Yeah… I’ve had a harder time than before. I talked to my doctor about it…it’s just one more thing to be depressed about, and to feel bad about. One more reason to feel like a failure. Anyway, my doctor talked to my parents and they started talking about IV ketamine treatment. I’m getting it now. Twice a week.  I can’t say the change is instant and magical, but I can say the depression is definitely getting better and the problem with thinking is improving, too.  I’ll let you know how it goes…”

“IV ketamine. Hmmm. Maybe I’ll talk to my parents about it. This feeling that I’m not smart anymore is really kicking me in the gut. I already feel like a failure and this is making it so much worse.  Thanks man. Keep me up to date ok…?”

“You bet. I should tell you that ketamine doesn’t just help the thinking problem. It can give you the feeling that you can accomplish what you want to accomplish…like you have confidence.  And hope…. Plus all those feelings of self-criticism, self-hatred, beating yourself up….? That stuff calms down and gets quiet. And it helps you want to get stuff done that you need to do.  Hard to describe, but it’s helping me. A lot. I have one more week of treatments left.”

Ketamine.  IV ketamine.

So here’s the thing. Major depressive disorder affects more than 16% of people in  their lifetime. And among those, nearly 40% of those patients have cognitive dysfunction. That means they experience impaired memory, decision making ability, and problem solving. 

One weird word you don’t see much anymore — but is at the root of “cognizant” is — cognize. And that’s what you need to do, but it’s hard to do when you’re depressed. It’s hard to cognize… to grasp, fathom, pick up on things. You may be cognizant that you’re not keeping up. That you’re making mistakes. That problem solving and figuring things out has become harder and harder. Making decisions is harder and harder. But to be able to “cognize” effectively is important. And that’s where “cognitive” comes from.

Cognitive function is the most impaired function as a result of depression, and it’s also the function most improved by ketamine. What a relief! There’s hope!

A research team led by Anna Stippl used the Beck Depression Inventory – II, or BDI-II, to measure depression severity in a group of 47 participants just last year. The BDI-II is one of the most widely used tools used for this. They divided into three categories the elements of the inventory: Cognitive, Affective, and Somatic. 

And it turns out that IV ketamine treatment can improve cognition. In fact, the largest reduction in symptom severity following IV ketamine treatment in those categories was in the area of cognition. 

So, while IV ketamine treatment reduces Roger’s depression symptoms of lethargy, hopelessness, despair, and wanting to give up…. It also helps his cognition: ability to make decisions, problem solve, find solutions, and set priorities.  And it also relieves the body aches, listlessness, lethargy, and lost feeling that seemed to dominate Nelson.

In fact, improved cognitive function has been reported after a single ketamine infusion — yep! — as well as following a series of ketamine infusions.

What about ketamine causes the positive effect ketamine has on cognitive function? 

This team suggests it’s the enhanced control in the prefrontal cortex after ketamine infusions, which is mediated by rapid production of new synapses directly related to brain derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF.

While there is no easy fix for major depressive disorder, and the cognitive impairment that can go with it,  IV ketamine can provide dramatic change in cognition, outlook, behavior, and hope.

You may think that the purpose of ketamine is to just help you feel better. And it is — though that’s an oversimplification. Because these areas of cognition, mood, behavior, and physical symptoms like body aches, all play a role in how you feel and function.  Ketamine helps so much more. It helps when your brain won’t work, ketamine can improve cognition…and make you better on many levels.

IF you have symptoms like Roger or Nelson, and nothing you’ve tried has helped….call us.

We live and work to help you experience relief from your symptoms, like cognitive function, sadness and despair, and listlessness, lack of energy and hopelessness.

You can reach out for hope, better performance, and freedom to pursue the rewarding life you long for.

To the restoration of your best self,