IV Ketamine Therapy – What Is Ketamine Infusion and How Does It Work?

Get Relief with the Premier Choice in Ketamine Therapy & IV Hydration in Sacramento and Roseville.

What Is IV Ketamine Infusion Therapy?

IV Ketamine therapy is a treatment that uses low doses of ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic medication, to manage various mental health conditions. Examples include anxiety, treatment-resistant depression, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

In the hospital operating room, ketamine is approved for use as an anesthetic at high doses. Lower dose “sub-anesthetic” ketamine injections are used “off-label” to treat anxiety, depression, pain, and other mental health conditions.

Recently, many factors contribute to the increase in mental health ailments across various backgrounds. Currently, there are many medications that are prescribed by physicians and psychiatrists to treat anxiety, depression, OCD, PTSD, pain, and event some substance use disorders.

These medications work through attempting to correct the chemical imbalances in the brain by targeting specific brain receptors such as dopamine and serotonin.

IV Ketamine Infusion Therapy is an innovative treatment that can help individuals find relief from chronic psychiatric and mental health conditions.

In the past, anxiety, depression, OCD, and PTSD, were once commonly believed to be conditions that require various medications and to address—often causing side-effects requiring more medication to counter the side-effects. For some, treatment-resistant depression is extremely difficult to address.

If you have not found antidepressants or other treatments to have worked, do not lose hope. Ketamine infusion therapy could be a promising treatment option that can finally help you alleviate your symptoms.

You will need to consult with a licensed healthcare provider to make sure that ketamine infusion therapy will work for you. At KlearMind, our experienced physicians, nurses, and clinicians will review your medical history and mental health needs with you.

What is ketamine?

Ketamine is a general anesthetic widely used in operating rooms since the 1960s. In the 1990s, it was Yale researchers who first demonstrated that a low-dose intravenous (IV) infusion of ketamine had rapid and significant antidepressant effects.

In the following decades, more research has been complete to demonstrate the efficacy of ketamine infusion therapy in helping patients find relief from depression as well as other chronic mental health conditions.

What does ketamine treat?

Ketamine infusion therapy is primarily used to treat people suffering from major depressive disorder (MDD) and treatment-resistant depression (TRD).

A few leading statistics on ketamine research include:

Clinical studies show that ketamine infusion therapy can effectively treat MDD and treatment-resistant depression TRD with a success rate as high as 70%.
Most patients show a dramatic improvement after only one or two infusions.
70% of patients with suicidal ideation report no longer having suicidal thoughts within a few days of treatment.

Ketamine has also been proven to be effective in treating other mental health conditions. It can help treat anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and PTSD.

How does ketamine treatment work?

Ketamine works differently than antidepressants, which can take weeks to months to produce results. Traditional antidepressants, known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), focus on regulating serotonin hormone levels. Ketamine is unique. It acts on NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptors and increases glutamate levels. Glutamate is one of the brain’s most powerful chemical messengers.

Increasing glutamate helps to strengthen and restore the neural connections and pathways in the areas of the brain most impaired by depression.

So this is what supports our brain’s neuroplasticity. As a result, we experience positive changes in brain circuit function and improved mood regulation.

Given in low doses, ketamine infusion therapy can produce rapid and significant improvement in symptoms, often within a few hours to days. Compared to antidepressants, increasing your glutamate levels with ketamine yields a greater and more substantial impact on brain cells with only one single dose.

What is a ketamine therapy session like?

Ketamine infusion must always be administered by specially trained medical personnel in a certified clinical setting because it is given intravenously and is considered a controlled substance. Most patients receive it as an outpatient and are able to go home within a couple of hours.

At KlearMind Ketamine & IV Hydration Clinics, we offer ketamine infusion therapy in all modalities in Sacramento, Roseville, and surrounding areas. The infusion process generally lasts 40 minutes. Including monitoring, journaling and integrating, the entire session takes about an hour and a half to two hours.

What does ketamine therapy actually feel like?

At the beginning of the session, we will seat you in a comfortable chair with blankets if needed. Once you’re settled in your chair, your team at KlearMind will let you know when the IV has begun. Patients report a calm and relaxing feeling. As the treatment progresses, you might feel increasingly light or faint. Some patients report feeling like they are floating.

Some individuals experience a sensation of a slight separation between themselves and their bodies. For some, your hands and feet may feel very far away. Others progressively feel more separation between themselves and the different parts of consciousness. For example, their thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and perception all seem like separate experiences. For reference, these sensations are considered to be the dissociative effects of ketamine.

How do patients handle these sensations?

Patients generally tolerate these sensations well, reporting the experience as “pleasant” or “profound” or “spiritual”. During these sensations, someone struggling with anxiety, depression, or rumination will feel much less of these symptoms. Some may even feel distant from those negative symptoms.

Patients often describe this experience as an immense relief – like the blanket of depression has been temporarily lifted.

In rare instances, patients may have a negative experience. We have psychiatric professionals on-site constantly monitoring your session to help manage these rare cases. The event is usually brief and goes away completely within 10-15 minutes after stopping the infusion treatment.

What is the typical ketamine treatment?

KlearMind Ketamine & IV Hydration Clinics recommends 6 ketamine infusion therapy sessions. 6 ketamine treatments for three-4 weeks. The average is 1-2 treatments per week. Your clinician will review this with you during your initial consultation.

If you respond well and your symptoms are successfully controlled following this initial course of treatment, your provider will schedule follow-up sessions. During these sessions, you will work with your clinician to determine long-term treatment plans as needed. If a primary care provider believes a patient may benefit from maintenance treatments, then you may have an infusion every two to four weeks after the initial 6 doses.

What are the side effects of ketamine therapy?

Side effects range from each individual. The side effects usually only last during the treatment session. While you may not experience any side effects, the most common side effect of IV ketamine infusion therapy include:

Disassociation
Double vision
Dream-like state
Elevated blood pressure
Elevated heart rate
Feeling strange or loopy
Loss of appetite
Nausea
Slight pain where injected
Trouble speaking

To ensure the safety of our patients, they are continuously monitored during their sessions between 90 minutes to two hours.

Where can I get ketamine treatments in Sacramento or Roseville?

The first step in getting treated with ketamine infusion therapy is to talk to your provider. If you’re interested in getting treatments with us at KlearMind Ketamine and IV Hydration Clinics, our friendly and experienced staff will gather information on your symptoms, and background. They will learn about the treatments that you’ve tried in the past to help you assess whether IV ketamine therapy is right for you.

Our highly trained team will be happy to answer any questions you may have about IV ketamine infusion therapy. From there, you will be able to schedule your treatment sessions.

Your primary care physician will also help you to determine maintenance treatments based on your unique needs.

If you are still searching for relief from depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, OCD, or other mental health conditions, ketamine infusion therapy might be an option for you.

What Is IV Ketamine Infusion Therapy?