Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy CA

Since 2000, research studies have shown that IV subanesthetic doses of ketamine consistently decreased symptoms of treatment resistant depression symptoms including: suicidal ideation, anxiety, PTSD. The treatment of these symptoms with ketamine helps create rapid, effective, and sustained emotional healing. Ketamine treatment in combination with Therapy, or KAT is often effective in treating acute suicidal ideation and core symptoms of PTSD, including intrusive thoughts, dissociative reactions, nightmares, increased autonomic arousal and associated depression.

Ketamine blocks a receptor in our brains called NDMA that is thought to play a role in depression. Overall ketamine is thought to create neuroplastic changes in the brain which facilitates the growth of new neural pathways. Which is a fancy way of saying that it basically rewires your brain. Some experts compare ketamine’s effect on the brain to a hardware fix on a computer versus a software fix (which is compared to antidepressants). There are no set age limitations for the use of ketamine therapy but in our clinic we will only evaluate clients 18 y.o. You may have heard of ketamine before as a street or club drug – because it has dissociative properties, some people take it in high doses recreationally to create a sort of out-of-body experience. However, the dose given in ketamine treatment is much much smaller than the doses that are taken recreationally. There is no research showing that ketamine is addictive.   

All in all, ketamine is an effective way to treat many mood disorders safely and quickly. If you have questions about whether ketamine therapy is right for you, give our office a call: (661) 5348014.