Ketamine Therapy
Would Ketamine Therapy Benefit You?
Ketamine is the only legal psychedelic therapy available in Indiana, and Dr. Dee Bonney explains the ways in which this drug can help transform the lives of people who are struggling with healing.
Ketamine works by decreasing glutamate levels in the brain. Glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter. It also increases levels of brain-derived neuotropic factor (BDNF), which is thought to be responsible for the neuroplasticity of the brain.
Neuroplasticity is the brains ability to form new tracts, allowing us to reframe old traumas and get out of self-defeating internal monologues.
Who is Ketamine Therapy appropriate for?
Ketamine has an FDA indication for treatment of refractory depression. People who struggle with depression, anxiety, and PTSD have reported improvements after a series of ketamine infusions.
What should I know before my appointment?
You will need an adult to drive you home, and we recommend coming with headphones or ear buds, an eye mask, and a blanket if you tend to get cold. It’s also advisable not to eat for a couple of hours prior to coming in. We will recommend some guided meditation apps for you to use to enhance your experience.
Is Ketamine safe?
Ketamine is a drug that has been used for decades in emergency departments and operating rooms for sedation as well as for pain. It has an excellent safety profile.
Unlike its use for sedation, ketamine for refractory depression is usually given much more slowly via infusion over about an hour. The risks are low, but not zero.
When you come in for treatment, we go over the risks, which can include breathing issues, allergic reaction, or the potential for stomach acid to get into your lungs if you were to vomit. However, one of the properties of ketamine that makes it safe is that our bodies maintain “protective airway reflexes,” meaning we can still cough and clear our airway even while getting this infusion.
We have even had patient walk with assitance to the bathroom during their infusion.
How can I schedule?
Please reach out to the office at 317-300-4091.
Severe Depression, suicidal thoughts?
If you or a loved one are struggling with suicidal thoughts please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 day or night. We would love to care for you in our office but if you need immediate assistance please don’t hesitate to call 911.
What I’ve noticed since my infusions is that I have zero depression. I mean zero. No thoughts of suicide at all. I still take my meds, but I still had episodes of depression before the infusions. I’ve also noticed that before the infusions I really had a hard time getting out of bed and getting ready. It felt like an extreme chore to even shower. Now, I put makeup on. Get ready. Take my baths. All of those self care things. I enjoy spending time with friends. Doing activities with friends. It’s made a major difference and I still feel well.
Why Ketamine therapy?
Ketamine works differently than other medications that treat depression. It can work more quickly.
Sometimes individuals get stuck in the journey of trying to heal from prior traumas, difficult relationships, and limited, negative internal dialogue.
Ketamine increased the neuroplasticity of the brain, allowing the patient to lay down new neural paths to frame past experiences differently.
There seems to be a “window of opportunity” during the weeks in which ketamine infusions are taking place in which the brain is more open to the healing that comes from quality counseling and even EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), which has been shown to be particularly helpful for PTSD.
“Ketamine has a robust and rapid effect on depression, which was seen immediately after the administration of ketamine and sustained at the end of 1 month.”
– Efficacy of ketamine therapy in the treatment of depression [clinical Study by Mandal, Sinha, Goyal]