Depression

What symptoms develop due to depression?

Patients often wait too long to seek help for depression because they think they just have the blues. But there’s an important difference between the blues and depression: The blues eventually lift on their own, while clinical depression often goes into a downward spiral without professional help.

If you’re depressed, you may:

• Feel worthless or hopeless
  
• Develop ongoing fatigue
  
• Lose interest in your favorite activities
  
• Gain or lose weight
  
• Sleep more or less than normal
  
• Find it hard to concentrate
  
• Lose your appetite
  
• Feel restless
  
• Have thoughts of suicide
• Depression causes several of these symptoms nearly every day for at least two weeks.
  

What is treatment-resistant depression?

Treatment-resistant depression occurs when you take antidepressants, but your symptoms don’t improve. Most patients go through a period of trial-and-error when they first begin taking antidepressants. You may take several different antidepressants at varying doses before you’re considered to be treatment-resistant.

What is ketamine and how does it treat depression?

Ketamine has been used for decades as a pain reliever and an anesthetic medication. When you take a low dose, called a subanesthetic dose, ketamine dramatically improves depression by balancing a brain chemical called glutamate. Ketamine may also regenerate nerve connections and improve communication between nerves.

Patients who respond to ketamine feel their depression lift within hours of their treatment. Some feel the improvement nearly immediately; for others, it takes about 24 hours.

By comparison, you wait several weeks for antidepressant medications to take effect — if they help at all — because they target different brain chemicals. The rapid improvement achieved with ketamine makes it especially valuable for treating patients with suicidal ideation.

What happens during ketamine treatment for depression?

Dr. Sadighim administers ketamine using a slow intravenous (IV) infusion. Directly infusing the medication into your bloodstream allows your body to absorb and use the full dose. It also gives Dr. Sadighim the ability to precisely control the amount you receive.

Your infusion takes about an hour, then you relax in the clinic for one hour before going home. Most patients receive a series of six ketamine infusions over two weeks to produce long-lasting results.

Each patient responds differently to medications, depending on their unique metabolism and genetics. However, many find that their improved symptoms last at least several months before they need maintenance treatment.

Ketamine is very effective for clinical depression, treatment-resistant depression, and suicidality. To schedule an appointment, call Long Island Ketamine Center or use the request appointment tool.