KETAMINE INFUSIONS FOR CHRONIC PAIN AND TREATMENT-RESISTANT MENTAL HEALTH CONDITIONS IN ORLANDO, FL

JUNE 9, 2022 - BY: TODD W. MAUTNER, DO

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Mental health is just as important as physical health, and sometimes the two are interconnected. For example, chronic pain can lead to stress, anxiety, and depression. Ketamine infusions provide a unique way to relieve chronic pain while also improving mental health problems.

This blog post will explain how ketamine infusions relieve chronic pain and improve treatment-resistant mental health diseases such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD.

How Does Ketamine Work?

Ketamine is a medication that has been used for decades as an anesthetic. More recently, studies have shown ketamine to effectively treat chronic pain and mental health disorders.

Ketamine works by binding to the NMDA receptor —a protein that is involved in pain perception, cognition, synaptic plasticity, memory formation, and neuronal connections.

Ketamine binds to and blocks these receptors, reducing the transmission of pain signals toward the brain. The blockade of the NMDA receptors helps achieve pain relief and mood stabilization with Ketamine.

Conditions Treated with Ketamine Infusion Therapy

Beyond its conventional use as an anesthetic agent, Ketamine has proven to treat neuropathic pain and mood disorders when other treatments have failed. Some common conditions treated with ketamine infusions therapy include:

 

MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS	CHRONIC PAIN CONDITIONS
Major depression	Migraine Headaches
Anxiety	Postoperative pain
Bipolar Disorders	Neuropathic pain (diabetic, chemotherapy-induced)
PTSD	Phantom limb pain
Postpartum depression	Post-stroke pain
Obsessive-compulsive disorder	Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS)
Addiction and Substance abuse	Fibromyalgia
Suicidal Ideation	Cancer pain

How Ketamine Infusion Therapy Can Help Chronic Pain Sufferers

Ketamine infusion therapy can benefit chronic pain patients who do not respond to the prevalent analgesic regimens. There are various types of chronic ailments that cause persistent, refractory pains in the body. The consistent aches seriously interfere with day-to-day activities and reduce the quality of life.

Research suggests that the administration of ketamine is found to be effective in relieving postoperative pain, as well as reducing cancer pains. The role of ketamine on the NMDA receptors prompts the researchers to further investigate the performance of ketamine in chronic pain management.

Neuropathic Pain

Pain arising from nerve involvement is the most stubborn type and, therefore, the most difficult to deal with. Infusions of ketamine can help people suffering from persistent neuropathic pain.

Animal studies revealed that chronic neuropathic pain is also associated with depression-like behaviors. Low-dose ketamine can treat depression and pain arising from neuropathic conditions.

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)

The syndrome is unresponsive to most over-the-counter pain killer medications. However, doctors can prescribe ketamine therapy to alleviate symptoms. As per a retrospective review, ketamine infusions may provide weeks of pain-free periods to CRPS patients.

Spinal Cord Injury

Traumatic injury to the spinal cord can mean a great deal of pain but can be aptly managed using ketamine infusions. Administrators have observed that higher doses effectively provide pain relief for longer periods (two weeks).

A randomized controlled trial advocates the use of ketamine for traumatic spinal cord injury. However, it might be linked to some slight side effects. Compared with lidocaine, ketamine proved its mettle in managing peripheral neuropathic pain. Some studies consider it a “third-line analgesic” due to its moderate pain-killing effect.

A 2021 systematic review and mate-analysis concludes that long-term infusion of ketamine leads to anti-allodynic effects for long periods.

Fibromyalgia Pain

The mysterious pain disorder can hamper life and put the patients in bed. Dealing with fibromyalgia patients is a challenging task for the physicians as well. Only those physicians that resort to ketamine for pain relief are relieved themselves.

Meta-analyses find fibromyalgia in the list of chronic pain conditions treated with ketamine. Reportedly, ketamine acts on the NMDA receptors and modulates the pathways associated with pain. Low-dose ketamine can be used to treat fibromyalgia symptoms but monitor for side effects.

A systematic review found that IV ketamine for fibromyalgia is only effective for a short period. However, a female fibromyalgia patient whose pain was refractory to mot analgesics and pharmacological interventions was given intravenous ketamine therapy. Upon completion of the treatment, the patient reported:

●         Complete remission from pain

●         Improved quality of life

●         Reduced dependence on analgesic medications

The patient was ecstatic to notice that she had no pain for one year since infusion. It also reduces referred and muscle pain in FM patients.

Cancer Pain

Pain arising from a tumor rarely responds to average NSAIDs. Medical professionals have to recommend morphine derivatives to lower pain intensity in most cases. Ketamine has shown promising results in abating cancer pain to everyone's relief.

Studies in palliative care have demonstrated a strong role of ketamine administration in refractory cancer pain. 74% of the patients in the study reported evident reductions in pain.

It is believed that as ketamine acts on the NMDA receptors, the pain-killing effect can work in cancer patients as well. Ketamine infusions have been used as an adjuvant to opioid therapy. A positive outcome was seen in a study of ketamine’s response (as adjunctive therapy with opioids)  in managing cancer pain in children/adolescents.

8 out of 11 patients reported improvement in pain and subtle opioid-sparing effects with ketamine administration.

Headaches And Migraines

Cluster headaches and migraines are a source of discomfort and do not respond to any pain killer drugs. Ketamine is one effective drug that can subside a headache.

As per a randomized controlled trial, IV ketamine significantly decreases headaches and the need for analgesics.

The ketamine-magnesium combination is well-tolerated and leads to evident pain control in patients with refractory cluster headaches. Two Caucasian males suffering from the condition found the combination very effective.

Even intranasal ketamine administration can be effective in the acute treatment of cluster headaches. Six patients with chronic refractory migraine were given IV ketamine in a hospital setting. All the patients reported improvement in short-term improvement in pain severity.

Thus, it can be safely concluded that ketamine is effective for chronic headaches and migraines.

How Ketamine Infusion Therapy Can Help Those With Mental Health Conditions

Several mental health conditions seem to respond well to ketamine therapy.

Anxiety And Stress

Continually mounting pressure from society adds to anxiety and stress, which need to be managed asap!

However, anxiety disorders are clinical conditions that need to be cured with medicines. Doctors can prescribe ketamine infusions to treat anxiety disorders due to the drug's high efficacy.

Modern literature suggests strong anxiolytic properties of ketamine in animals. The drug has potential for use in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder. Ketamine significantly imparts a substantial reduction in anxiety (in patients with a social anxiety disorder).

Weekly ketamine doses are well tolerated and induce marked improvements in treatment-refractory generalized and social anxiety disorders symptoms.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Ketamine is emerging as a novel therapeutic intervention in treating PTSD. The action of ketamine on the NMDA receptor makes it a choice for psychological conditions.

According to a randomized controlled trial, ketamine infusion rapidly reduces symptom severity in PTSD patients. It also decreases comorbid depressive symptoms associated with PTSD.

A 2021 trial found ketamine to be efficacious in reducing symptom severity of chronic PTSD validating its use in the management of the disorder.

Major Depressive Disorder

Ketamine infusion is an effective way of dealing with the world’s third-largest disability-causing disorder. Research suggests that the potent anti-depressant effect of the drug is achieved due to NMDA modulation. The alteration leads to improving both severe and chronic forms of depression. It can be employed in the management of treatment-resistant major depression.

Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder is a type of depression that can be managed with ketamine infusions. It has been observed in different studies that the neuromodulatory effect of ketamine can be used to treat bipolar disorder.

As per a study, ketamine infusion, when used as adjunctive treatment, has long-term and short-term impacts on the course of bipolar disorder.

Suicidal Ideation

Reports suggest that IV ketamine increases social cognition and decreases suicidal ideation in major depressive disorder patients.

According to the findings of the Canadian rapid treatment center of excellence, IV ketamine infusions produce evident improvements in symptom severity of suicidality and anxiety in depression patients.

The procedure was safe and well-tolerated by the patients.

Post-Partum Depression

Ketamine, when administered prophylactically, reduces postpartum depression in Chinese women undergoing cesarean section. The maneuver also relieved suicidal ideation in women with postpartum depression.

Another account reported that intraoperative IV ketamine could reduce postpartum depressive symptoms for one week. Therefore, ketamine can be used to induce general anesthesia for C-sections because it prevents postpartum depression.

Substance Abuse

Intravenous administration of ketamine has also helped patients with substance and alcohol abuse.

How Effective Is Ketamine?

The effects of ketamine infusions can be long-lasting. In some cases, the results may last for weeks or months after the infusion. The drug is increasingly used to manage refractory conditions such as chronic pain, headaches, and mental health disorders.

Ketamine infusions are effective in alleviating depression symptoms and impart pain relief to chronic pain patients.

Side Effects

Modern studies (2021) suggest that ketamine’s safety profile has significantly improved. Therefore, ketamine infusion therapy is widely used in neuropathic and cancer pain.

Ketamine is generally well-tolerated, with most people only experiencing minor side effects such as dizziness, nausea, and vomiting.

Therefore, drug authorities regularly monitor the drug gas abuse potential in most countries.

Ketamine Infusion Therapy vs. Traditional Medications

Infusion therapy provides superior results to conventional medicine. Whether chronic pain management or anti-depressant effect, IV ketamine infusion therapy imparts extraordinary results due to its modulation of glutamatergic (NMDA receptor) activity in the brain and spinal cord.

Ketamine therapy is usually employed in patients who do not respond to traditional medicine.

Who Can Receive Ketamine Infusion Therapy?

The following patients can receive ketamine infusion therapy:

●         Patients suffering from chronic pain disorders (fibromyalgia, neuropathic pain, postoperative pain)

●         Psychological patients (depression, anxiety disorder, etc.)

Patients receiving treatment for mood disorders must be recently (within three months) evaluated by a caregiver.

However, patients with glaucoma, coronary artery disease, and alcoholics are approached with caution as the infusion can complicate the condition.

Take-Home Message

If you or someone you know is struggling with chronic pain, depression, or anxiety, ketamine infusion therapy may be a treatment option worth considering. It is also relatively safe and well-tolerated. Ketamine infusion therapy may offer relief when other treatments have failed.

If you are in the Orlando, FL area and would like to learn more about ketamine therapy for chronic pain and treatment-resistant mental health conditions call 689-208-0092 or visit Sunshine-Pain.com.