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Ketamine, a common anesthetic, is being used in Maryland to help people with major depression.<\/p>\n
About 48 million U.S. adults struggle with depression, and for almost half of them, the disorder is so severe that it\u2019s considered major depressive disorder. Of those with MDD, a third don\u2019t respond to traditional treatments, such as medications and therapy. The Mood Center, with offices in Annapolis and Columbia, offers ketamine therapy for treatment-resistant depression<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some who are familiar with ketamine might think of the death of Matthew Perry<\/a> and how it can be abused. But it\u2019s legitimately used every day as an anesthetic and for pain relief. <\/p>\n James Soldinger suffered from severe depression for most of his life until he discovered ketamine therapy at The Mood Center.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter that first infusion, it was like my brain turned back on,\u201d Soldinger told WBAL-TV 11 News.<\/p>\n How ketamine treatment works<\/p>\n Gena Kosmides, a psychiatric nurse practitioner at The Mood Center, oversees the ketamine treatment.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first stop is me. They come in for a full evaluation just to determine the appropriateness of the treatment,\u201d Kosmides told WBAL-TV 11 News.<\/p>\n Patients then relax in a comfortable chair under serene lighting. Then, an IV is initiated.<\/p>\n \u201cIf all is well, we increase the drip rate slightly, and then we just kind of allow them to have their experience for the next half an hour, 40 minutes,\u201d Kosmides told WBAL-TV 11 News.<\/p>\n The experience often includes dissociation, a disconnect from oneself.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause that really taps into those locked boxes in our brains that we use to hide things, and that is our coping mechanism, because it\u2019s sometimes too painful to process certain things and to relive certain experiences,\u201d Kosmides told WBAL-TV 11 News.<\/p>\n While not new, ketamine could change mental health treatment<\/p>\n But ketamine for depression isn\u2019t new. Dr. John Krystal discovered it decades ago at Yale University.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we found was this remarkably rapid antidepressant effect, and it happened so quickly, and it was so unexpected, that we really didn\u2019t begin to believe it until we saw it happen in several patients,\u201d Krystal told WBAL-TV 11 News.<\/p>\n Kosmides has observed that ketamine helps with more than just depression.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had patients say that after their first treatment, they no longer wanted to smoke, drink, gamble, whatever the case may be. It was just like that compulsion was gone for them,\u201d Kosmides told WBAL-TV 11 News.<\/p>\n Krystal said he believes this is the future of mental health treatment.<\/p>\n \u201cI think ketamine and esketamine, and other approaches that are being developed will transform what it means to have depression,\u201d Krystal told WBAL-TV 11 News.<\/p>\n \u201cIt truly, for me, felt like a miracle,\u201d Soldinger told WBAL-TV 11 News.<\/p>\n The Mood Center offers both ketamine infusions, which are paid for out of pocket, and esketamine or Spravato, which is the ketamine derivative that\u2019s taken as a nasal spray that\u2019s approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Spravato may be covered by insurance if the patient meets some strict guidelines.<\/p>\n READ MORE:Ketamine therapy could be future of mental health treatment<\/a><\/p>\n