Ketamine For Treatment-Resistant Anxiety

Ketamine prescription can play an important role in the treatment of anxiety disorders. At Balance Ketamine Clinics in Chicago, we have been treating anxiety patients who did not respond to multiple medications.

Nowadays, people with anxiety disorders are treated either with a generic antidepressant, such as an SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor), an SNRI (selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor), or a benzodiazepine and if they don’t respond to one of these, they get a trial of another or several more.

However, between 30% and 40% of patients will not achieve remission, despite 3 or 4 different traditional agents, and even with evidence-based nonpharmacologic therapies, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or mentalization-based therapy (MBT).

The current thinking is that eventually, 6 to 12 weeks after initiating treatment with traditional antidepressants, dendritic growth and increased synaptic connections occur but with ketamine, these can occur within 24 hours of the infusion.

In one study, patients reported reduced anxiety symptoms within 1 hour of dosing and this effect persisted for up to seven days. A dose-response profile was noted for anxiolytic effects, dissociative side effects, and changes in blood pressure and heart rate, with minor changes at 0.25 mg/kg, and progressively greater and more durable changes at the higher doses. 

Ketamine has also shown to help in anxious depression (depression combined with anxiety)

At Balance Ketamine Clinics in Chicago, we have been treating treatment-refractory anxiety patients with Ketamine and have recorded significant decreases in patient’s anxiety levels.

So act on your anxiety now and let us help you feel yourself again.