Recently, with more and more medical providers seeing the benefit Ketamine can have on treatment resistant depression and specific pain diagnoses, infusion clinics continue to emerge. With limited data and experience many patients are being told to discontinue all current psychiatric medications before initiating Ketamine therapy. Not only is this incorrect but it also can be very dangerous if a patient is so desperate to find a treatment that works that they stop taking medications without the proper direction. This can lead to catastrophic outcomes.
Six years ago, we started treating patients with very limited information and research on possible benefit limitations when administering Ketamine infusions in conjunction with prescribed mental health medications. Ketamine is a very safe medication when administered in a proper setting with very few medication interactions. Now into our 6th year and over 7000 infusions later we have been able to analyze our data to look at various effects or limitations based on multiple factors such as age, gender, psychological profile (Major Depressive Disorder vs. Bi-polar) and the effects of medications on the treatment success.
The evaluation of our data has shown there is NO significant correlation between Ketamine’s effectiveness and a patient’s current medications. Some minor modifications to the Ketamine infusion may be needed to improve patient response but discontinuation of medications is not required. Although these findings are preliminary and further evaluation needs to be done, our initial data verifies that the need for patients to wait to get off medications, struggle with the side effects, and place themselves in a possibly dangerous situation, is not essential to a patient receiving successful Ketamine infusion treatment. At Ketamine Wellness Centers we have years of experience and the research to back up our protocols. We can work with you and your prescribing physician on an individualized treatment plan to allow you to find the relief you deserve without any additional struggle. You have struggled long enough, we are here to help.
There IS hope, there IS help.
Kevin Nicholson is the CEO for Ketamine Wellness Centers.
