Ketamine has been gaining more and more popularity as a “breakthrough” therapy for depression and chronic pain that is resistant to treatment. Almost everyone who suffers from chronic pain experiences symptoms of depression. Nearly everyone with depression feels more pain. Pain and depression can be uncomfortable companions when it comes to poor sleep. The unnoticed cause of chronic pain, depression, and disordered sleep is excessive inflammation, a natural immune mechanism in overdrive. Ketamine can interrupt irregular patterns of stress and inflammation hormone production. This helps the body “reset” to normal levels of these immune molecules that can cause distress when continually elevated.
Researchers are now exploring the “inflammation hypothesis” of depression. The evidence that high levels of inflammatory markers cause dysfunctions in mood, sleep, and pain rather than just rising once the threshold for these conditions has been established is so overwhelming that future depression diagnosis can be predicted by elevated levels of these markers.
Researchers are actively investigating how to control excessive inflammation to not only treat but also prevent many treatment-resistant diseases linked to inflammation. Ketamine is a powerful and safe treatment that can help reduce the body’s production of inflammatory molecules.
Despite the fact that a number of other anti-inflammatory treatments are being investigated for depression and that anti-inflammatory activity is a hallmark of traditional depression prescriptions of SSRIs & SNRIs, long-term use of these drugs can have organ impacts and side effect profiles, which less time-limited treatment avoids. Ketamine is a powerful drug that not only treats pain and depression but also downregulates hormones linked to inflammation and stress after six to twelve brief sessions.
This treatment has a remarkable effect on chronic conditions. Ketamine, like other treatments that lower inflammation through dopamine, raises dopamine levels in the brain. It also increases the growth of dopamine receptors, and brain growth factors, and initiates new dopamine receptors.
A medical professional wrote this article at Florida Medical Pain Management. Florida Medical Pain Management is proud to offer comprehensive pain management services to a diverse group of patients. Patients at Florida Medical Pain Management can get help managing hip, knee, leg, and neck pain. The practice also offers comprehensive arthritis management, along with treatments for auto accidents, sports, and work injuries as well as ketamine infusion.
