Ketamine Treatment
Ketamine is an innovative, cutting-edge medication for difficult to treat cases of depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorders, among others. It was originally developed as an anesthetic, and approved by the FDA for such use in 1970. Ketamine has since been discovered to have many other uses in medicine, including as a solution for treatment resistant psychiatric illness.
The Treatment Process
To receive ketamine treatment, you must first be screened by one of our psychiatric experts, to ensure that this is an appropriate treatment for you. Once approved and scheduled, you arrive at our office 15 minutes in advance to complete any remaining paperwork. At your scheduled time, you will be escorted into a private room, with a comfortable, plush seat, and offered your choice of entertainment, including: cable television, Netflix, iPads and wifi, as well as coffee and water.
Your ketamine treatment, which is administered via IV infusion, will last 40 minutes, and you will be asked to remain at the COPE office for an additional hour for observation. Once released, we ask that you have a friend or family member drive you home; alternatively, we are happy to help you arrange a taxi or Uber ride home.
DURATION OF Treatment
For the first two weeks of treatment, you will come in three times a week for an IV ketamine infusion (each being a 40 minute session, followed by a one-hour observation period.) You may find that you can then maintain remission of your illness on more traditional psychiatric medications. Some patients, however, may need to come in for maintenance treatments, which will occur every week for four weeks. The sustained phase is once a month for six months (if necessary).