What Is Ketamine?
Ketamine was first synthesized in 1962 by Dr. Calvin Stevens of Wayne State University while working at Park Davis Laboratories. At that time, he was investigating an alternative anesthetic to phencyclidine (PCP), hoping to produce an agent that was less likely to cause seizures or neurotoxicity. His efforts resulted in the discovery of ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic that produces anesthesia through hallucinogenic, amnestic, analgesic, sedative and cataleptic effects. Since that time, ketamine has been used extensively as an anesthetic and sedative agent in both human and veterinary medicine, gaining popularity in the 1970’s in battlefield and burn medicine settings. In the peri-operative arena, it has many functions including but not limited to induction for anesthesia in trauma and burn patients. It is commonly used as a sedative for patients that require fiber-optic intubation while awake, and to relieve pain before performing spinal anesthesia in patients requiring hip surgery. For more than 50 years, ketamine has proven to be a safe anesthetic drug with potent analgesic properties.
KETAMINE + WELLNESS = SUSTAINABILITY
How Does Ketamine Treat Depression?
Basic and clinical studies demonstrate that depression is associated with a reduction in the size of brain regions that regulate mood and cognition, including the prefrontal cortex (PFT) and the hippocampus, as well as decreased neuronal synapses in these areas. Antidepressants can block or reverse these neuronal deficits, although typical antidepressants have limited efficacy and delayed response times of weeks to months. Ketamine, an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist, produces rapid antidepressant responses, even within a few hours, in patients who are resistant to typical antidepressants. Ketamine rapidly induces synaptogenesis and reverses the synaptic deficits caused by chronic stress.
How Does Ketamine Treat Chronic Pain?
Over the past several decades, there have been a growing number of patients who are being diagnosed with some form of chronic pain[1]. The treatment of chronic pain is based on a trial and error approach with antidepressants, anti-epileptics, and opioids as drugs of first choice. Irrespective of treatment, efficacy is limited, with just 30-40% of patients showing adequate to good pain relief. Anesthesiologists and other pain physicians started using ketamine, at sub-anesthetic doses, to treat therapy-resistant chronic pain syndromes. Low dose ketamine produces strong analgesia by inhibition of the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor. Other mechanisms by which ketamine inhibits pain include enhancement of descending inhibition and anti-inflammatory effects in the brain.
At KHWCT, we practice a multimodal approach to treating patients with treatment-resistant depression and chronic pain. We collaborate with psychiatrists, neurologists, mental health providers, physical therapists, family medicine physicians, pain specialists, and obstetricians/gynecologists to help coordinate and develop the best treatment plan for each patient. Scientific research supports the assertion that exercise, diet, and proper rest are integral components to health and wellness. We treat patients on a referral basis and are happy to assist you.
How Ketamine Acts As A 'Switch' In The Brain
