Treatments

What is ketamine?

Esketamine is an active substance from the group of anaesthetics that is used orally-sublingually (in the mouth, under the tongue) for the treatment of treatment-resistant depression.
At low doses, ketamine therapy regenerates neural pathways in the brain that have been damaged by mental health problems or chronic pain conditions.
Ketamine is approved by the European Medicines Agency, but is not yet freely available in Austria.

Areas of application

Depression
Due to physiological changes caused by ketamine treatment, many patients may feel improvement after only 1 - 2 treatments, but ketamine is not a "cure" for depression and requires ongoing maintenance treatments after stabilisation. Ketamine treatment in combination with psychological support makes it possible to overcome depression in many cases in the long term.

Neuropathic and chronic pain
With chronic pain, pain signals remain active in the nervous system for months or even years. The emotional stress of chronic pain can also make the pain worse.

Research has shown that ketamine therapy has an extremely beneficial effect on the central nervous system by allowing your neurotransmitters to reboot, attacking the "root of the problem", unlike traditional pain medicine which tries to dull pain signals with painkillers.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Numerous studies have been conducted on PTSD patients using ketamine, many of which concluded that "ketamine treatment was associated with a significant and rapid reduction in the severity of PTSD symptoms".

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Carolyn Rodriguez, MD, PhD, assistant professor at Columbia University in New York, presented research at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) showing that ketamine has been shown to rapidly reduce symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder, giving patients the freedom to regain control of their lives .

Suicidal thoughts
Ketamine has been shown in a number of studies to drastically reduce suicidal thoughts after treatment: "There is growing evidence that lower doses of ketamine can reduce suicidal feelings and relieve symptoms of severe depression in a very short time, as little as a few hours." (Dr Richard Shelton, University of Birmingham, Alabama)

Your life is not over yet. It's just beginning. Ketamine can help you realise that.