The Hyper-achieving town of Acton, MA

Remember the smart kid that always sat at the front of the class so he could raise his hand to answer all the questions…?  You know the one…he always got A’s on his work, and won the spelling bee. Yeah, see? Now you remember….

Well, that’s Acton, MA. If there’s an award to be won, the tiny little town of Acton, a suburb of Boston, wins the award.  If there’s a project that calls for community involvement, the people of Acton show up with their work clothes on.

Acton was awarded for its outstanding leadership as a designated Green Community. Accomplishing this required strong leadership and accountability, and community-wide cooperation. They reduced their municipal energy consumption by at least 20 percent after five years of implementing their Energy Reduction Plan.

Not surprisingly, they have a Conservation Commission, and a Preservation Committee, training for CPR, and for installing infant car seats properly.

You won’t be surprised to also learn they received the Government Finance Officer Association’s Certificate of Achievement for Excellence for Financial Reporting.

The town manager, Steve Ledoux, has served in this capacity for 40 years, and announced his retirement in July, 2018.

40 years!  

Maybe this is a hidden stone in the foundation of the Acton community that demonstrates such stability.

So you can see where this is headed. This town behaves like a highly organized city 5 times its size. Like that kid on the front row. He wasn’t a football player, but he was super smart and very good at anything that required his brain. Acton may not have a football team, but they’re a little town of sharp achievers, who do everything they attempt well.

Depression, Bipolar Disorder, OCD, PTSD, Social Anxiety in Acton, MA

Still, even with all that purpose and organization, executive planning, and participation, there are some things they can’t manage.  And  those are episodes of suicidal thinking and psychiatric mood and anxiety disorders — like bipolar disorder, depression, social anxiety, PTSD, and OCD.

When you suffer from a mood disorder, it’s pretty difficult to participate in community efforts. Each participant is expected to carry their weight; their fair share of the distribution of responsibility.  

But if you’re burdened by a severe anxiety or a severe mood disorder, you just may not be able to do that. A lot of people don’t realize how much it takes out of a person to be depressed, or overwhelmed with anxiety. To jump at every unexpected noise, and then try to get control after all the strength has left your knees.

Bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression, PTSD, social anxiety and OCD tend to be chronic illnesses that can build a wall between you and the rest of the world. You may feel isolated, miserable at best, and debilitated at worst…or even suicidal.

After you’ve been suffering with these symptoms for years, it’s really hard to keep getting up in the morning. To show up for school or work. In fact, after awhile, many just stop leaving the house…it’s too terrifying…. Too traumatic.

And sadly, too few people understand or respect your situation.

Of the millions of people who suffer from the symptoms of mood disorders, only about a third get better with medication. Shocking?  It’s true.  

Another group…maybe as many as another third or less… get some relief from symptoms, or reduction in severity, from trying another medicine, or maybe a combination of more than one. Sometimes that helps.

But studies show that once that second round is tried, each additional effort to try to treat the symptoms loses the likelihood it will be effective quickly.  It’s like a plane that takes off from the runway, sputters…and then careens into a nosedive.

While neuroscientists didn’t understand why this happened for so many years, there’s been a vertical learning curve in recent years that’s making that phenomenon clearer. It’s because those traditional medicines don’t treat the heart of the problem.

Picture yourself taking a lovely drive in the country…and your engine sputters….so to fix it, you wash the windshield and air up the tires.  If your car is out of gas, it needs gasoline.  Nothing else will solve the problem.

But, the core of depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders is becoming illuminated. The traditional medications worked on serotonin and norepinephrine receptors…sound familiar?

Remember when Prozac first came out, and people talked with a twinkle in their eye about putting it in the city water to make the world a better place?  That’s because a full one-third of people who suffered from mood disorders were feeling better!  It was remarkable.

But after a while, disillusionment crowded onto the stage because of the other millions of people who got nothing out of it.  No relief. No help.  Nothing.

Well, that’s all changed. New advanced treatment options have arrived on the scene, and rather than 33% of people receiving relief from symptoms, now it’s much, much higher.

How about 75% success??  Sound better??

Or 80% ??  Better yet??

IV Ketamine for Depression in Acton, MA

IV Ketamine for depression in Acton, Mass is a treatment that’s been gaining attention around the world in the last few years.

It works in at least four ways to repair and rebuild the synapse connections between the neurons in the brain, pull G proteins off their lipid rafts to support the movement of signals from synapse to synapse, blocks something called the NMDA receptors…and switches on mRNA, which switches on your DNA to turbo boost BDNF so the branches of these synapses can explode with growth like an animated movie.

I know, sounds like alphabet soup. In easy English, it fixes what’s broken in your brain because of the mood and anxiety disorder.

By studying the effects of ketamine in the brain of people with mood disorders, so much has been learned about what causes those disorders, and what helps them heal.

Lori Calabrese, MD, at Innovative Psychiatry, has dedicated a lifetime to finding novel and more effective ways to bring relief to people whose lives have been wrecked by their symptoms. She finds a better route, an alternate but more effective combination of medicines, a more bioavailable nutrient…whatever it takes, to see her patients experience more relief.

IV Ketamine Treatment for Acton, MA

So she offers IV ketamine treatment to Acton MA for treatment-resistant depression and other mood disorders. She uses the most studied, effective treatment methods found to date. And in her practice, she consistently sees 80% positive response in patients with treatment-resistant depression, bipolar depression, PTSD, social anxiety, and OCD, and suicidal thinking.

If you’re wondering why your doctors haven’t mentioned ketamine as treatment in Acton, MA for your mood disorder, it’s possible they aren’t aware of the research. However, if they’re interested, they can easily find lots of data pouring out of universities, labs, and clinical practices around the globe.

So Dr. Calabrese uses IV ketamine treatment, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (or TMS), strengthening of the microbiome, and more in her tool chest of advanced treatment options. Her goal is, and always has been, to find relief for her suffering patients.

Every person is different. There is no “one size fits all” remedy.  But there are tools. And Dr. Calabrese’s tool chest is overflowing. Her history on faculty at both  Harvard and Yale, and her innovative expertise, have set her as the premier psychiatrist in Connecticut, just a 90 minute dash down I-84.

Ketamine treatment for treatment-resistant depression, bipolar depression, social anxiety, PTSD, OCD, and  suicidal thoughts is the latest thing in psychiatry since sliced bread. It doesn’t make everyone better, but it transforms the lives of 80%. There’s never been a medicine in psychiatry that had even close to that record.

TMS for Acton, MA

Then there’s TMS. It’s 75% effective in her practice… and it’s different. A machine that looks a little like the X-ray machine at the dentist, is positioned next to your scalp in a specific place, to aim at the DLPFC….  a shortcut for the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of the brain.

It then sends tiny magnetic impulses deep into that area over and over. It will sound to you like a tap tap tapping. But those impulses stimulate and arouse the neurons in that area which awake and start sending more signals around the brain. This is a wonderful treatment for people who have not experienced relief before.

This is an incredibly sophisticated treatment, and results can be long-lasting.

Another excellent tool.

But there’s a problem.

Since ketamine has been widely used by anesthesiologists, some anesthesia specialists have started providing ketamine treatment to psychiatric patients  who have severe depression, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, PTSD, OCD, phobias, and other serious psychiatric conditions.

Because the use of ketamine to treat psychiatric mood disorders is still in its infancy, there is  much to be learned in order to treat and protect our most vulnerable patients.

The reactions of someone so fragile to unexpected stimuli must be monitored by a psychiatrist well-experienced in using IV ketamine to treat disordered brains. The delicate workings of the brain-and emotions-during a ketamine infusion should be supervised by a seasoned psychiatrist who has deep experience and training in the use of ketamine for psychiatric mood disorders. Springfield MA residents who suffer from mood disorders have easy access to a psychiatrist with just this kind of expertise.

Innovative Psychiatry in South Windsor, CT

Lori Calabrese, M.D, is Harvard-educated and Mass General-trained psychiatrist whose 20 years in practice has focused on finding solutions for those people with the most severe and difficult to treat mood and anxiety disorders.  Educated at Wellesley, Hopkins, and Harvard, trained at Mass General, she’s served on faculty at both Harvard and Yale.

A leader in her field, Dr. Calabrese is a doctor’s doctor, and her practice is focused on innovative solutions. Solutions for her treatment-resistant patients to help them to not only improve, but get better. Feel better. Function better. And enjoy life in ways they’d forgotten they could.

Ketamine for depression isn’t for everyone with psychiatric mood disorders like depression, bipolar disorder, OCD, PTSD, social anxiety. It’s also not for everyone with suicidal thoughts. But, it’s probably just what you need if you’ve tried other treatments.

But at Innovative Psychiatry we see 80% of treatment-resistant patients respond well. Initiative returns, the ability to enjoy is restored, the weight of depression lifts, and the torment of anxiety subsides.

And for those who are not candidates for IV ketamine treatment, there are other excellent treatment options like Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, and strategies for strengthening the microbiome, and using curmumin. We want to see you enjoy your life.

And if you are experiencing suicidal thoughts…?  Ketamine treatment can erase those thoughts within an afternoon.

IV Ketamine Treatment is Effective and Powerful

There has never been a treatment like this. But it’s a strong medicine that acts swiftly on the delicate structures of the brain. It should be provided by psychiatrists equipped by training and experience to treat the whole patient and the whole disorder. Who are ready to respond circumspectly to specific experiences in their patients as they occur.

For patients who live in Acton, MA, expertly administered ketamine infusions are available a few miles down I-91 in South Windsor, CT.

If you’ve suffered for years from treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, PTSD, OCD, or bipolar disorder, help is available. If you struggle with chronic suicidal thoughts, and traditional treatments failed you, Innovative Psychiatry is minutes down the road. Dr. Calabrese is scheduling patients with treatment-resistant depression, bipolar depression, PTSD, social anxiety, OCD for advanced treatment options. And for those who struggle against suicidal thoughts and contemplation, you can get treatment to stop it quickly.

For more information about Innovative Psychiatry’s advanced treatment options for depression, anxiety, PTSD, OCD, and bipolar disorder, call us at 860.648.9755 or email info@loricalabresemd.com.