2018: Neuroscience Breakthroughs like IV Ketamine Treatment Mean Breakthroughs for YOU

Neuroscience breakthroughs like…IV ketamine treatment..?

Exactly.

2018 lies before us, like a valley that spreads to the horizon. And while it’s impossible to access the future, you can move forward knowing that each “today” you live has promise that was unheard of until recently.

Especially if you suffer from untreated or treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD, or anxiety — social anxiety, OCD or phobias.

Neuroscience researchers have been discovering more and more about treating psychiatric mood disorders that has transformed our approach to treatment — and the outcomes, as well. 

The 21st century breakthrough of IV ketamine treatment for depression is transforming psychiatric medicine. Studying the effects of this treatment has revealed that depression and other mood disorders wear away at the signaling structures in the brain, leaving synapses, dendrites and dendritic spines broken, weakened, and sparse.

Neuroscience breakthroughs like IV ketamine treatment can bring breakthroughs to you … to your life.

The clearing away of those broken down structures, and the rebuilding of new ones in a denser, more prolific, forestation turns out to be key to treating depression. The old theory that depression was caused by levels of serotonin or dopamine that were too low … well they’re ancient history now.

Neuroscience Breakthroughs like IV Ketamine Treatment means Breakthroughs for You

Actually, so far we know of four ways ketamine clears away depression and erases suicidal thinking so quickly. And we’re watching with anticipation to see if research this year will reveal even more.

So another intervention ketamine performs is related to the G proteins that are piled on lipid rafts in the cell membranes of the neuron cells in the brain.  Depressed people have these G proteins piled up on lipid rafts, where they can’t do their job to enhance signaling from synapse to synapse.

For those who are helped by traditional antidepressants, it takes several hours for those G proteins to slide off the rafts and become productive.

This is one reason it takes so long for traditional antidepressants to work for those they help. But when ketamine is given, they slide off the rafts within minutes. Remarkable. 

Yet another healing action of ketamine is its effect on DNA. Turns out it also switches on mRNA which in turn flips the DNA switch to “ON” and that fire hoses BDNF across the synapse network.

BDNF is a growth factor like the richest of composts, and it empowers the dendrites and dendritic spines to burst into blooming branches like a giant oak tree.  When the BDNF is fueled by ketamine, it turbo boosts that prolific branching of synapse structures, and your brain lights up like New York City. Unprecedented.

A well-lit brain is a happy brain.

Quoting from our earlier post entitled, “Breaking News: Another Way IV Ketamine Smashes Depression,”

As new synaptic connections are built, and greater communication between brain cells develops, the brain gains the ability to see things in a different perspective, and your outlook becomes brighter and healthier.

IV ketamine can jump start that process. Wait. No. It can turbo-charge it.

Extraordinary.

And the fourth action IV ketamine treatment performs is increasing glutamate levels to equip synapses to send more and faster signals across the brain, which traditional antidepressants don’t touch. Brilliant.

APA Task Force Issued a Consensus Statement in May 2017

What a year it’s been!

Four actions of ketamine we know about so far. The outcome is so extraordinary, so successful in such a large number of treatment-resistant cases, the American Psychiatry Association assigned a task force to issue a statement about the use of ketamine, this anesthesia medicine, off-label for treating depression.

Their statement was one of the most momentous and widely read articles of the year. In fact, it’s listed as #3 on JAMA Psychiatry’s “Most Talked About Articles of 2017.” Suffice it to say that those who were on the task force are true experts in our field. They’d seen ketamine’s power to lift depression right out of the water.

So they offered guidelines and cautions, and expressed their elation when interviewed that such a thing has happened in their lifetime.

They also specify that ketamine should be administered under a psychiatrist’s supervision.

TheHealthSite.com featured a list of the 6 best medical achievements of 2017 that everyone should know about…. Ketamine for depression stood strong on that list.

Of course, we know ketamine’s discovery didn’t happen this year.  Many years of studies and clinical trials laid the groundwork for ketamine’s popularity now.

Thousands of patients have experienced the relief, the return of joy, initiative, creativity, and energy without side effects that ketamine provides.

Never before has there been such a medicine that treats so many disorders in such a huge percentage of the population as ketamine.

Ketamine has delivered HOPE.

At Innovative Psychiatry, we see 80% of patients who’ve suffered for years with treatment-resistant depression, crippling panic attacks, suicidal thoughts that won’t stop, severe bipolar disorder, PTSD, social anxiety, and OCD experience relief, restoration, and relaxation after treatment.

Another neuroscience breakthrough that means breakthroughs for you is Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation or TMS. It uses a coil to create a focused magnetic field over the front left side of your head. Specifically the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex region.

Then it sends tiny repetitive pulses deep into the brain to the emotion-regulation region. This stimulates the nerve cells and wakes them up. When they wake up, they begin to function again and give you better emotional regulation and function.

With TMS treatment, you sit quietly for anywhere from 16 to 37 minutes, five days a week for 6-8 weeks. About halfway through the series of treatments, depression begins to lift, and you begin to feel better and better. Again, faster than traditional antidepressants, and without any of the weight gain, sexual dysfunction, fatigue, or GI side effects they can cause.

The sophisticated technology of TMS continues to develop. Even 5 years ago TMS seemed experimental and wasn’t widely available. But, like ketamine,TMS built a strong reputation for effectiveness. 

In general terms, clinicians and hospitals report 60-75% success with TMS around the US. We see 75% of our patients consistently respond — and often remit — at Innovative Psychiatry. 

Again, HOPE.

Curcumin has gained an ever stronger reputation for its use as an adjunct in treating depression. Plus the connection between the brain, mood, and the strengthening of the microbiome is growing and gives us more and more opportunities to work with your diet and lifestyle to improve your mood.

No known treatment lifts depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD, or OCD in 100% of cases at this point. But these innovative treatment options prove successful for 75 – 80% of people who suffer in spite of traditional treatments. Obviously, hope soars for you if suffer with depression.

If you suffer from suicidal thoughts, depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD, social anxiety, OCD, you can feel better. The age of despair for sufferers is quickly dissipating. This has never been the case before. You really can feel better….lots better….as in really good.

If you’d like to start 2018 on a brighter, fuller, more functional, and happy path, call us. We live one day at a time, because “now” is all we really have. But live well. Live as the best you you can be.

To your very best self in 2018,

Lori Calabrese, MD