Battling severe depression can have a devastating impact on your quality of life, relationships, and physical health. Though depression is a manageable disorder, some people develop treatment-resistant depression that doesn’t respond to standard treatment protocols.
At Klarity Clinic, we understand the toll that difficult-to-treat depression takes on a person’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being. We also know how scary it can be to feel that you’ve run out of treatment options.
Our skilled physicians specialize in the long-term management of treatment-resistant depression. We offer innovative solutions, including ketamine infusion therapy that helps lift the cloud of depression, so you can live a lighter, more fulfilling life.
Depression is a mental health disorder that causes persistent feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and worthlessness that last for two weeks or longer. Typically, depression symptoms are manageable with antidepressant medications and psychological therapy.
Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) describes a form of depression that doesn’t respond to at least two different antidepressants, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin and norepinephrine (SNRIs).
TRD can develop at any time, even if you’ve previously had success with antidepressant therapy. Risk factors for the disorder include your genetic background, brain chemistry, chronic stress, and underlying health issues.
Although TRD can be more challenging to treat than general depression, strategies are available to help you feel like yourself again. Ketamine infusion therapy has been shown to be fast-acting and effective at providing lasting symptom relief.
Ketamine is an anesthetic medication traditionally used in surgery to keep people pain-free and relaxed. In smaller doses, ketamine has been shown to change brain chemistry by increasing glutamate levels.
Glutamate is a large brain neurotransmitter that is vital to normal brain function. Rapidly increasing glutamate levels with ketamine help eliminate sadness, hopelessness, and other depression symptoms.
Ketamine also supports the growth of new neural connections and repairs damaged connections, giving your brain a chance to heal. This helps improve your overall well-being and makes depression easier to manage in the long term.
Ketamine is highly effective at lifting the heavy weight of treatment-resistant depression symptoms. In fact, many people notice a significant difference in their symptom severity before their infusion is complete.
Ketamine therapy typically involves getting a series of six intravenous (IV) infusions over a period of two weeks. Infusion sessions last about 40 minutes and are closely supervised by our medical team.
Although you may notice an immediate improvement in your symptoms, results of ketamine therapy become more noticeable in the hours and days after your first session and should continue to improve within the first week of your initial session. Ketamine can also address anxiety and other mental health disorders that occur alongside depression.
Our providers continue to monitor your progress with ketamine for treatment-resistant depression. We can also include nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) to your treatment protocol to increase your energy levels and improve your body’s response to stress.
Call the Klarity Clinic office in Upland, California, or Las Vegas, Nevada, today to schedule a ketamine therapy consultation for treatment-resistant depression. Our online feature is also available for booking your appointment.
