Behavioral Therapy in Destin, Florida

What are mood disorders?

Mood disorders are psychological disorders that affect the way you act and what you think. If you have a mood disorder, you will experience serious, repeated changes in mood. Mood disorders may increase your risk of suicide. There are numerous types with varying symptoms.

Which mood disorders can ketamine help?

• Major Depressive Disorder
• Bipolar depression (the depressed phase of bipolar disorder)
• Post-partum depression
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Suicidal ideation
• Anxiety disorders
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder

What is depression?

Depression is a mood disorder that affects the way you think and act. It causes feelings of intense sadness and worthlessness, as well as a loss of hope. Depression is a chronic condition, which makes it different from the sadness or grief that everyone experiences from time to time.

If you have depression, you may experience any of the following symptoms in varying degrees of severity:

• Sadness or hopelessness
• Feelings of worthlessness or guilt
• Lost interest in previously enjoyed activities
• Changes in appetite
• Changes in sleep habits
• Fatigue
• Poor concentration and decision-making skills
• Thoughts of death or suicide

For a clinical depression diagnosis, you must have symptoms for at least two weeks.

How is depression treated?

Traditional therapy for depression typically consists of oral antidepressants, which typically take 4-6 weeks to provide relief and are effective in only about 30% of patients. At Physicians Ketamine Institute of Destin, we provide ketamine infusion therapy to patients who have not seen improvement on oral antidepressants. Ketamine takes a different approach to treating depression than do the traditional antidepressants.

While most antidepressants help your brain produce more serotonin, which eventually stimulates glutamate production and functionality, ketamine stimulates glutamate activity almost immediately, providing faster and more effective results. Standard antidepressants can take 4-6 weeks to begin to work, while ketamine often works immediately or within days.

What is anxiety?

While everyone experiences stress and anxious feelings from time to time, anxiety disorders involve excessive fear and stress about typically benign situations. In its simplest form, anxiety is an extreme and irrational fear of a future event that causes symptoms like tension and avoidance behaviors. There are several classifications of anxiety disorders. The most common is generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).

If you have GAD, you live with persistent worries and fears that disrupt your regular daily activities, along with symptoms that include:

• Muscle tension
• Feeling on edge
• Poor concentration
• Fatigue
• Insomnia

Other common forms of anxiety include panic disorder, social anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and specific phobias.

How is anxiety treated?

At Physicians Ketamine Institute of Destin, we use ketamine infusion therapy to treat individuals with anxiety disorders in Destin, Florida. Your experiences with anxiety may be very different from others, and it’s sometimes challenging to find the right treatment to relieve your symptoms. Many of the medications used to treat anxiety are slow-acting and have to build up in your body to adjust to any chemical imbalances contributing to your condition.

Ketamine infusion therapy works differently than traditional anti-anxiety medications. While most antidepressants help your brain slowly produce more serotonin, one of the “feel good” chemicals in your brain, ketamine, stimulates your brain’s overall functional capacity.

What is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)?

PTSD is a psychiatric condition that can develop following any type of traumatic experience. PTSD causes disruptive symptoms, including:

• Intense and disturbing thoughts and memories of the trauma
• Flashbacks
• Nightmares
• Extreme sadness, anger, or fear
• Detachment from other people
• Avoidance behaviors
• Strong reactions to unexpected noises

PTSD is highly personal. Everyone experiences and responds to trauma differently. If you have PTSD, you may experience any of these symptoms, or others, to varying degrees of severity.

What causes PTSD?

The precise causes of PTSD aren’t clear. However, when you experience a traumatic event, it can trigger changes in the way your brain regulates chemicals and hormones in response to stress. Your risk of PTSD is higher if you have a personal or family history of depression or anxiety. Other risk factors include experiencing trauma at any point during your life, substance abuse disorders, and lacking a strong social and emotional support system.

How is PTSD treated?

Ketamine infusion therapy provides rapid relief from depression and anxiety symptoms offering the mental and emotional clarity needed for effective talk therapies. Ketamine therapy is an exceptional addition to other therapies for PTSD, including processing therapies, desensitization therapies, and other psychotherapies.

What should I expect during ketamine infusion therapy for a mood disorder?

You will have an extensive consultation to determine if ketamine infusion therapy is right for you. If you are an appropriate candidate, you will begin your treatment with a series of six ketamine infusion sessions, two to three times a week. You may experience a relaxed or floating sensation and other mild side effects during your treatment that subside quickly when your infusion is complete. You are carefully monitored throughout your sessions to ensure all protocols and best practice standards are followed to ensure your safety.

Depending on the severity of your symptoms and your response to ketamine infusion therapy, Dr. Barnett may suggest regular follow-up infusion sessions. She works with you over time to extend the length of time between appointments if you need ongoing care.

The ketamine infusions should help resolve your symptoms and create mental clarity so you can focus your energy on additional therapies like cognitive behavioral therapy, where you learn to recognize your thoughts and control your behavioral responses.

If you want to learn more about ketamine infusion therapy and how it can help control your depression and anxiety or complement your other PTSD therapies, call to make an appointment today.