Ketamine Infusion Therapy Specialist
Psych Atlanta
Psychiatrists & Ketamine Infusion Clinic located in Marietta, GA & Roswell/Alpharetta, Roswell, GA
If you have depression, and it isn’t getting any better using standard treatment approaches, ketamine infusion therapy could help. Psychiatrist Michael Banov, MD, at Psych Atlanta, located in Marietta and Roswell, Georgia, has specialized expertise in using ketamine therapies to help patients who have treatment-resistant depression. Dr. Banov could help you when all else fails, so call Psych Atlanta today to schedule a consultation or book an appointment online.
Ketamine Infusion Therapy Q & A (see Videos for more information)
What is ketamine infusion therapy?
Ketamine infusion therapy is a groundbreaking modern approach to treating depression and other mood or anxiety disorders. It’s an off-label treatment, which means it doesn’t have FDA approval, but in the skilled hands of the psychiatrists at Psych Atlanta, ketamine infusion therapy is safe and effective.
Depression and anxiety disorders are common, debilitating illnesses that can severely impact the quality of life. Many patients who have these disorders improve when treated with a combination of medication and psychotherapy. Unfortunately, some people find that despite trying many different types of therapies, they still don’t feel much better.
It’s now known that treatment-resistant disorders often respond to ketamine infusion therapy, offering an alternative to patients who do not benefit from traditional treatments.
Ketamine, which has been used as a form of anesthetic medication for over 60 years, sedates patients and controls pain. Still, recently, it’s come to light that ketamine can also help with treatment-resistant psychiatric problems.
Ketamine infusion therapy is the most effective way of delivering ketamine into your bloodstream through an intravenous line (IV).
What are the advantages of ketamine infusion therapy?
Ketamine has advantages over other anesthetics because it doesn’t have the same effects on blood pressure or breathing. Ketamine is also well-tolerated and works quickly, whereas many psychiatric medications take time to start working, and side effects can be a problem for some patients.
Ketamine infusion therapy has advantages over other methods of delivery, as well. An IV infusion ensures that virtually 100% of the dose you receive is available to your body, whereas other methods have lower levels of bioavailability.
The dosage is lower than the typical ketamine dose for pain management or sedation, and Psych Atlanta adjusts the dose or stops the treatment very quickly if necessary. If you should experience any adverse reactions, ketamine is very short-acting, so after stopping treatment, the effects should wear off within a couple of minutes.
How long do the effects of ketamine infusion therapy last?
It’s hard to predict how long the effects of your ketamine infusion therapy will last. Psych Atlanta finds patients who only have one or two ketamine infusion therapy sessions find their symptoms return within a short space of time.
However, the routine ketamine infusion therapy treatment protocol of six treatments over a two or three week period, followed by a single treatment each week for the next month, provides longer-lasting results.
You might need to have booster treatments once you’re feeling better, which could be monthly or just twice a year, depending on your progress.
As well as ketamine infusion therapy, Psych Atlanta offers alternative delivery methods, including a new, FDA-approved version called esketamine (Spravato™) that’s given intranasally.
If you’d like to know more about ketamine infusion therapy, call Psych Atlanta today, or request one on-line by completing the New Patient Form.