Ketamine has been used to treat chronic pain and depression for over ten years, and its anaesthetic properties have made it popular in surgery since the 1960s. By using lower doses than are required for anaesthesia, intravenous (IV) ketamine chronic pain infusions relieve pain and reduce feelings of depression, including severe depression. While the exact mechanism of ketamine’s action is unknown, it is thought to impact the receptors in your brain that contribute to your feelings of pain and sorrow.
Ketamine is also thought to suppress inflammation-related signals in the brain. Finally, ketamine works in several ways at the same time to relieve pain through its anaesthetic properties while also improving your mood and the way you think about things, reducing feelings of depression and hopelessness.
When other drugs don’t work, ketamine infusion therapy may help.
As previously stated, ketamine infusion therapy is not recommended as a first-line treatment for chronic pain and depression. Ketamine infusions may be the alternative answer that ultimately delivers permanent relief when established therapies and drugs have failed to provide long-term pain relief or diminish depression symptoms.
Furthermore, our society has become engulfed by an opioid pain medication epidemic. IV ketamine infusions offer a controlled, often immediate effect on pain if you’re looking to become less reliant on opioids for chronic pain. For example, if you have to keep increasing the number of pain pills you need just to get through your day, ketamine infusion therapy may allow you to take less medication or eliminate it altogether, and provide relief from chronic, debilitating pain.
What is Ketamine Treatment and How Does It Work?
Ketamine is used to treat depression and other mental diseases in addition to alleviating pain and tension.
Ketamine has been shown to be quite useful in treating depression symptoms. Patients usually have to take antidepressants for a few weeks before they start to work. Ketamine, on the other hand, takes only a few hours to work.
According to recent research, it re-establishes connections in the brain that are crucial for higher-order thinking, reasoning, and remembering. It also inhibits the activity of specific types of brain receptors linked to depression.
Combinations of medicine and/or antidepressants do not provide adequate relief for a significant number of people suffering from depression.
Therapy using Injections
Injection therapy is a sort of treatment that entails a series of injections to relieve pain.
These treatments are image-guided and performed with a tiny needle to ensure precision. They may be able to provide pain relief as well as provide further information to our doctors about your health or assist in the search for the source of your pain.
Back/spine injections and joint injections are both options.
In our practice, we use ultrasound and real-time fluoroscopic guidance to administer these injections. Based on your medical history, examination, and imaging data such as X-rays and MRIs, your doctor will devise a treatment plan.
Medication Administration
Medication management is a crucial part of total pain treatment, and it involves a number of elements.
Our doctors collaborate with our patients to keep an eye on the big picture. Working with the patient’s primary care physician and other specialists, as well as acquiring a
comprehensive medical history, are all part of this picture, as is prescribing within state and federal guidelines.
Our doctors’ goal is to identify the right drug for you, with the proper dosing and in the optimal combination with any other medications you may be taking.
Our patients will be informed and monitored to ensure that the most appropriate drug therapy is used to address their pain demands. As instructed by our physicians, some patients may mix pharmaceutical therapy with alternative therapies.
Neuromodulation
The administration of low voltage electricity to a specific nerve or target in the spinal cord or brain in order to modify neuronal transmission is defined as neuromodulation.
It can be used to alleviate neuropathic pain or control motor function. In other words, neuromodulation relieves pain by interfering with the transmission of pain signals between the spinal cord and the brain.
Neuromodulation of the spinal cord and peripheral nerves is provided by our experts.
The International Neuromodulation Society provides the following information:
Stimulation of the Spinal Cord
Small medical devices administer mild electric currents to the spinal cord to modulate pain
in spinal cord stimulation (SCS). signals and, in some cases, replacing pain with a slight tingling sensation known as paraesthesia.
The epidural space in the spine near the region that provides nerves to the painful location is used to place a series of electrical connections for spinal cord stimulation.
A minimally invasive ambulatory surgical method is used in this treatment. Typically, a patient returns to have a system placed.
Stimulation of the Peripheral Nerves
PNS (peripheral nerve stimulation) is a regularly utilised method for treating chronic pain.
A tiny electrical device (a wire-like electrode) is implanted next to one of the peripheral nerves during surgery. Rapid electrical pulses are delivered by the electrode, which feels like moderate tingling.
The electrode is attached to an external device during the testing time (trial), and if the trial is successful, a small generator is implanted into the patient’s body. One of the numerous electrodes delivers electricity from the generator to the nerve or nerves.
By turning the gadget on and off and altering the stimulation parameter as needed, the patient can control stimulation.
Infusion of Ketamine
Ketamine Infusion Therapy is a low-dose intravenous ketamine infusion therapy that we offer in our office. Your doctor will determine the number of sessions required.
Ketamine works to relieve pain by blocking a chemical receptor called N-methyl-D-aspartate, or NMDA, which is located in the nervous system and is involved in pain regulation.
Patients who have not received relief from a standard pill or injectable therapies may benefit from ketamine infusion therapy.
Ketamine infusion therapy has been shown in studies to help the central nervous system’s neurotransmitters’reboot.’ Patients with Fibromyalgia, Complex
Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), or Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy may benefit from this form of treatment (RSD). If you think this treatment is right for you, talk to your doctor about it.
Please refer to our booklet for more information.
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