What is PTSD
PTSD abbreviated Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental condition that may develop after a physically traumatic or frightening experience. The trauma may include distressing events such as road accidents, natural disasters, sexual assaults, among others.
For those who have has experienced traumatic episodes in the past, chances are they have fully recovered by receiving better self-care, or they had few problems adapting and dealing with such trauma. However, if symptoms worsen or persist for months or even years, they can interfere with a person’s daily activities. If this is the case, then one is likely to be suffering from PTSD.
Common symptoms of PTSD may include:
- Patients avoiding certain types of circumstances and thoughts that remind them of a past trauma
- Distressing nightmares and bad memories
- Frequent flashbacks of the traumatic event
- Agony resulting from revelation to traumatic reminders
- Uncontrollable feelings and moods, such as hopelessness, depression, and shame.
For children with PTSD and depending on their age, the symptoms above may vary.
PSTD Facts at a Glance
Approximately 70% of people in the USA (about 224 million people) have gone through a traumatic event at least once in their lives. Up to 20% of these people continue to develop PTSD. Currently, this is equal to about 45 million people or returned service members who are struggling with PTSD.
An estimated 8% or more than 25 million people in the USA have PTSD, which indicates non-service members or first time Americans will develop PTSD during their lifetime. This figure equates to 1 person for every 13 people in the USA alone. Statistics also indicate that women are twice as likely to develop PTSD more than men in America.
Psychotherapy and Medications as Standard Treatments for PTSD
The primary treatments for people with PTSD include medications and psychotherapy, or both. Since people are different, and PTSD affects people differently, it means whatever remedy works for one person may fail to work to someone else. Patients with PTSD need to try using different methods until they find what will work for their symptoms.
Psychotherapy involves talking with a qualified psychiatrist or mental professional to treat PTSD. Talk therapy sessions usually take about 6 to 12 weeks, but they can last longer. Research shows that support from family and friends can be an essential part of the recovery. Some therapy sessions target the symptoms of PTSD directly while others concentrate on family, social, or work-related problems.
Alternatively, for medications, there are no specific medicines which have been produced to treat PTSD. Only various verified drugs used to treat other psychiatric disorders have been useful in treating PTSD symptoms.
One class of medications used for depression and anxiety problems that work with the disorder include selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Examples of brands sold at local pharmacists include Sertraline (Zoloft), Fluoxetine (Prozac), and Paroxetine (Paxil).
Ketamine Infusion Therapy and how it Works to Treat PTSD
Ketamine has come out as a promising therapy for many psychiatric disorders, one of them being PTSD. PTSD is becoming a common complaint among Americans. Traditionally, the standard methods used to PTSD treatment involved both psychotherapy and mental medications. Sadly, these two methods may take long before they work or even fail to work.
Since these treatment methods have not been effective enough to treat PTSD and are still inadequate, ketamine infusion therapy has produced excellent results. The reason why it works better than other medicines is that it does not target the similar brain activities found from antidepressant drugs. Instead, it blocks brain receptors known as NMDA or N-methyl-D-aspartate that affect people struggling with PTSD.
Approximately 70% of patients who have experienced treatment-resistant PTSD find quick relief after a small starting dose of ketamine infusion. Besides, one should understand that the extent of getting recovery varies for each patient. For instance, some patients only get partial relief, while others get it immediately after the second or third treatment.
The Infusion Process
During a ketamine infusion procedure, therapists use intravenous methods at sub-anesthetic doses of 0.5 mg per kg. These doses do not have serious side effects, so they are safe treatments. A patient will start having a mild high blood pressure level and a brief feeling of dissociation, which will disappear in about two hours.
The main reasons why ketamine infusions therapy works over common medications is that if a patient responds positively, symptoms will improve within hours to days rather than weeks to months. Scientific studies have indicated that a single dose of ketamine infusion for about 45 minutes can result in a quick reduction of PTSD symptoms.
Fortunately, many patients respond quite well to this therapy in just some few days. Usually, they will have to undergo six sessions distributed in two to three weeks if they want to achieve optimal results.
Additionally, the possible side effects in other standards treatments for PTSD may be severe or even become permanent. However, when patients use ketamine therapy, they will avoid such side effects and obtain faster relief.
With Ketamine infusion, patients will forget about their past struggles with medications or therapies that failed to work. Most Patients have shown positive results proving that this therapy is an excellent invention to consider when treating PTSD.
What Patients Should Know before Using Ketamine Infusion Therapy
Most therapy centers recognize ketamine as the quickest, safest, and most successful option to treat PTSD. Patients need to understand that only qualified health professionals can perform ketamine infusion therapy. They do so by monitoring the patients’ symptoms while injecting varying ketamine doses up to an optimal range while minimizing any chances of adverse side effects that may occur.
Fortunately, ketamine starts providing quick relief in a few hours without patients experiencing the unpleasant side effects when supervised by qualified health providers. The procedure is also safe, and patients should not worry about any future consequences or side effects experienced, such as those found from other mood disorder drugs.
Written by: Alex Johnson
Company: The Recover
Address: Huntington Beach, CA
Contact Number: (888) 510-3898
Email: info@therecover.com
Website: www.therecover.com