Category: Depression

Articles about Depression by Lori Calabrese, MD | The Ketamine Blog

The World Health Organization asserts that depression causes more disability worldwide than any other illness. In addition to standing alone as a disabling disorder, it also worsens other illnesses from diabetes, liver disease, heart disease, and brain injuries. We present these articles about depression to show the many ways this disorder is expressed, ways to treat it, and to dispel stigma caused by lack of information.

Causes

Depression and stress create a self-defeating cycle. Prolonged stress prunes the synapses, the dendrites attached to them, and the dendritic spines, reducing the network necessary for optimal signaling in the brain. Consequently, thinking slows and outlook darkens. In addition, creativity all but disappears. Depression follows this process, imposing yet more stress on the these all-important signaling structures.

Other structures in the brain enter the process. These structures in turn malfunction and make the symptoms worse. The lateral habenula, the amygdala, the thalamus, and the hippocampus each play a role in depression. By the same token, depression impacts them, too.

Treatment

Only about a third of people who suffer with depression find relief with traditional antidepressants. These medicines increase neurotransmitters in the brain and eventually increase neuron growth. But the actions of these medicines delay the process and these patients improve slowly. Sometimes, if the first trial with a medication doesn’t help, a different one or combination can help another one third or so of those who didn’t feel better after the first trial. Unfortunately, 33% of people suffering from depression find no relief from these medications. Until recently, they were left with little or no hope of relief for the rest of their lives.

Benefits of Ketamine Treatment

However, ketamine treatment is a novel and advanced treatment that has changed the prognosis for those treatment-resistant patients. Ketamine switches the mRNA to “On” which turns on the DNA to turboboost the brain-derived-neurotrophic-factor (BDNF) that proliferates neuronal growth along with synapses, dendrites, and dendritic spines which play such a vital role in improving signaling throughout the brain.

Another benefit of ketamine is how rapidly it causes the G proteins to slide off the lipid rafts in the cell membrane. This allows them to get back to work enhancing signals. It also causes the cell bursting in the lateral habenula to be dampened. Another process that allows you to experience a sense of reward – and feel better – when something good happens. Basically, ketamine treatment goes to work to help you feel better fast.

Then you enjoy clearer thinking and more creativity. Also a rewarding and upbeat outlook filled with light and joy. Add to that the improved initiative, increased motivation, and hope that makes life worth living again. This remarkable outcome occurs in 65-70% of treatment-resistant patients in general, and much more than that when the treatment is highly personalized. And the results are rapid and robust. Extraordinary.

As you read these articles about depression, keep in mind that there is always hope. Researchers continue to work to find more aspects ketamine’s effects on the brain that can impact the outcome.

How Stress Takes Down the Best People…and What To Do About It

Heather was 38, and had had a series of extreme stressors over a period of several years. She was a giver at heart, always looking for ways to help — always trying to make the lives of people she knew easier or more fun.

But then her husband left her. It was the same old, tired story — an affair with her closest and dearest friend. But still … she was left with two enormous losses, and a crippling sense of betrayal about both of them.

She tried to function for the sake her of two children, Katie and Noah. One foot in front of the other. One day at a time.

Another Devastating Crisis

Three years later, Noah was hit by a school bus and rushed to the hospital. He had a concussion and his pelvis and femur were broken in so many places they gave her minimal hope he’d walk again. Weeks in the hospital, then months of rehab. Asking neighbors and family members to pick her daughter up at school, get her to piano lessons, grab dinner.

She was exhausted. And Noah was beginning to walk with a walker and just starting back to school when she got a phone call from her mother.

Another Overwhelming Tragedy

Her dad had died when she was 25 and her mom lived alone. Mom just found out she had an aggressive form of breast cancer. She’d been told to expect a year minimum of treatment then re-evaluation. But when her mom got so tired she couldn’t drive back and forth to chemo, there was nothing to do but have her mom stay with her. She’d probably be there through radiation, too. Heather asked her mom’s neighbors to look in on her house.

So a household of three greatly stressed people became a household of four extremely stressed people. Heather just held her chin up and set out to get through this, too. The idea of losing her mom when she was so young was terrifying.

She cooked, cleaned, ran the kids around. Made dinner. Went to work. Drove her mom to chemo. Did everything.

Stress Takes Down the Best People

Finally, 6 months later, her mom had to be admitted to the hospital. Her next door neighbor offered to take care of Katie and Noah for a few days. Thank goodness. But then … Heather didn’t get out of bed or out of her pj’s for three days … and she felt less and less like getting out of bed after that. She went through the motions of getting her kids to school and back home again … and feeding them when they were hungry. But she was numb. She was barely functioning.

Finally, darkness wrapped around her like a cold box, and she felt hollow. Numb. Adrift.

Someone from the church came to see her. When they saw how she looked, they could see she’d been through too much for too long. They went to work to take over the care of her mom, and took her to the hospital. Heather was admitted with severe Major Depressive Disorder.

Heather’s a giving, kind, and generous person. But chronic and repeating stress can take down the best people, and Heather was no exception. It brought her to her knees.

How Stress Brings Someone Like Heather to Her Knees

We’ve talked and talked about what stress does to your brain, and how it contributes to depression.

But let’s talk about why that happens.

Thanks to recent studies sponsored by Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, we’ve learned some things lately.

And I’m excited to share them with you.

It all makes so much sense when you get a peek inside the brain to see what happens.

MIcroglia Unwittingly Launch a Destructive Attack

There are immune cells in the brain, called microglia, that are responsible for defending against infection, among other things. One of the other things they do is help build and change the construction of neural connections in the brain.

Huge. And hugely important.

In this study, the research team, led by Ronald S. Duman, periodically caused laboratory mice to undergo stress-inducing conditions over a period of weeks. Then they evaluated the effects of this chronic stress on their brains.

It’s not surprising that the mice displayed symptoms of depression and anxiety. The team demonstrated that the neurons in the prefrontal cortex — which control your abilities to make decisions and function socially — react to the stressors.

Specifically, these brain cells signal the microglia to begin “remodeling” pyramidal neuronal circuits … which basically WEAKENS them. The outcome is that the synaptic connections between the neurons in the prefrontal cortex begin to break down. And too many of them are lost.

Sounds like Heather. Broken down. Lost.

Maybe that sounds like you.

How to Stop the Damage?

Then the team carried it another step.

When they blocked the neurons from signaling the microglia, the chronic stress the mice were subjected to did not affect their synapses in their prefrontal cortex so they did not become depressed.

The research team concluded that finding a way to block the neurons from signaling the microglia could be a way to treat anxiety and depression.

(It seems to me this could be a fantastic way to prevent anxiety and depression in those subjected to long term chronic stress, such as first responders, those with chronic illnesses, and more.)

You can imagine that if you undergo extreme stress over an extended period of time, that more and more of these connections will be lost due to microglia activity. And depression and its accompanying anxiety become more and more severe.

So what can be done about this deconstruction… these massive losses of synapses?

Restoration through an Extraordinary Medicine

Enter IV ketamine treatment, which has been shown to rapidly rebuild and proliferate these synapse connections that have been broken down by depression and anxiety … which are caused by stress and which create more stress of their own.

Remember that tiny doses of ketamine, administered properly, turns on mRNA to switch on DNA which turbo charges the brain-derived-neurotrophic-factors (BDNF) so the synapses grow, branch out, and proliferate creating a dense forestation of neuron connections.

And when all these neurons in the prefrontal cortex are tied together with a dense network of synapses, you come alive. Joy returns. Creativity blooms. Initiative and motivation billow.

This is what we can do about those lost synaptic connections.

Innovative Psychiatry Offers Expertly Administered Ketamine Infusions

We know that stress takes down the best people. You probably know someone like Heather who tries to help everyone, but eventually she’s the one who breaks down and needs help.

At Innovative Psychiatry, we see extraordinary, positive outcomes in treatment-resistant depression and bipolar depression, as well as in PTSD, OCD, social anxiety and suicidal thinking. That means that very ill people can get really, truly better. As in happy, upbeat, full of energy, initiative, and hope for the future.

You can feel like yourself again. With the energy to embrace each day, the hope to look forward to the future. You can enjoy an afternoon breeze, a beautiful ocean view, or the fragrance of a summer rose.

When was the last time that happened?

If you suffer from depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD, OCD, social anxiety or suicidal thoughts, and medications haven’t helped, call us. We can help you leave psychiatric disorders behind, and live a fulfilling life.

Live as the best you you can be.

To the emerging of your very best self,

Lori Calabrese, M.D.

April 9, 2018
International Conference on Ketamine for Psychiatric Disorders 2018

Can you say PHENOMENAL???

Let’s hear it for Ketamine Treatment and Oxford!!

I just returned from a history-making global conference focused on research and clinical evidence for ketamine for psychiatric disorders. Experts from nearly every continent spoke of their own data and evidence from this emerging field of the the science behind ketamine and the extraordinary help ketamine treatment provides. The entire room was held spellbound for three days, from the first word spoken until the final applause Friday afternoon. It was an unforgettable event in the most beautiful and historic venue at Wadham College, Oxford, UK.

A 400-Year-Old Chandelier in a 400-Year-Old Room

In the 1650’s, a group of individuals including such celebrated thought leaders as Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle, Christopher Wren, and Thomas Willis began an “Experimental Philosophy” club where the fundamental premise required that orthodox thought was rejected and the world was viewed through the “broadened lens of experimental scrutiny.”

Well, this club became the Royal Society when members of the family of King Charles II got involved. When that happened, the revolutionary became the norm.

It seems only fitting that this international conference on the revolutionary breakthroughs for treating psychiatric disorders should be held in this same building, and on these same grounds.

Rupert McShane chaired this ground-breaking event. Hats off to him for beginning what we hope will become an annual international conference.

Luminaries in the Ketamine Adventure

Gerard Sanacora, a frontline researcher for ketamine treatment in psychiatry, spoke first. He previously served as the lead researcher of the American Psychiatric Association Counsel of Research Taskforce for Novel Biomarkers and Treatments which published a consensus statement about ketamine for this purpose in mid-2017.

Dr. Sanacora kicked off the conference with an overview of the literature and key studies that have explored ketamine’s mechanism of action in treating psychiatric disorders. It was brilliant!

We’ve been keeping you informed about some of those in recent times … but there was so much more that was discussed.

Luminaries all around! We were graced with Peter Somogyi and David Lodge whose seminal work on NMDA and axoaxonic cells paved the way. Many of the top ketamine researchers and clinicians in the world presented their findings: Colleen Loo, Jennifer Southgate, Nuri Farber, Steve Levine, David Feifel, Declan McLoughlin, Haggai Sharon, Alison McInnes, Samuel Wilkinson, Michael Grunebaum, Elias Dakwar, Rupert McShane, Raquel Bennett, Karen Lascelles, Jeffrey Becker, Ian Anderson, Gordon Fernie, James Stone, Meng Lei, and Dan Iosifescu. Jose Miyar covered regulatory issues. Jonn Donello and Suresh Durgam discussed new breakthrough findings for the mechanism of action of Rapastine, and Jaz Singh presented new data about the safety and efficacy of esketamine.

And of course, the extraordinary international collaborative teams involved in all of this work … the freshness of perspective emerging across the field — from doe-eyed young researchers to seasoned principal investigators … the breadth and energy of molecular, cellular, neuroimaging, and clinical work represented in the posters.

Breathtaking doesn’t do it justice.

We talked about everything ketamine from mice to men … and from chandelier cells (just as gorgeous as the chandeliers King George IV gifted to Wadham College for the Holywell Music Room) to psychotherapy.

How fitting that we heard about paradigm shifts in the very room where Handel and Haydn first played! Raquel Bennet, Founder of KRIYA Institute, explored the importance of the dissociative experience as transformative, and the many ways ketamine has been used in clinical practice.

Biologically to induce neuronal plasticity (we talked about this before), as a sort of lubricant to enhance psychotherapy, and to deliberately induce dissociation … which can be transformative for the patient.

Jeffrey Becker offered us an elegant unifying hypothesis for ketamine in clinical practice, exploring the GABAergic interneurons and Jungian archetypes in treating people with depression.

The depth and breadth of this conference was amazing. The sheer richness of talents in the room, the knowledge and experience gathered into this one place from all over the world. Everyone talked about how much more we need to learn, and the questions that still need to be answered.

Ketamine for Psychiatric Disorders – Global Conference! Stunning.

These were basic scientists, principle investigators, neurimaging experts, clinical researchers, psychiatrists, anesthesiologists, psychologists … it’s astonishing to realize the scope of interest and exploration there is in perfecting this most remarkable treatment to help you get better.

When you feel depressed, deeply and severely … or when your vigilance and terror from PTSD is tearing apart your family … or when bipolar disorder rips you apart … It can feel like you’re all alone and no one out there cares. You know you don’t know the solutions. So you feel like you’re relying on scientists to figure out the solutions … but … is anyone really trying to help you?

This is why I tell you about this conference. This sharing of data, preliminary findings, hypotheses, results… just to show you there are people all around the world who explore the solutions to your pain, and work on solutions for you … and others like you … as feverishly as they can. They care. And they’re dedicated to learning more and more. All to help you.

As for me, I presented data from my clinical practice. It demonstrates that ketamine can be used to stop suicidal thoughts. And it happens often in a real-world outpatient clinical practice. What’s more, it provides an alternative to hospitalization.

Someone recently mentioned to me that he predicts the excitement over ketamine will fade away.

Of course, he’d probably read negative media accounts and had probably missed the science … and all the studies. But I have to say, I wish he and others who share that “doom and gloom” outlook could have been present to hear all the extraordinary work going on with ketamine and related compounds.

It seems pretty clear to me: ketamine treatment is going to be with us a good while.

Ketamine Can Make Antidepressants Work Better for Hospitalized Patients

Declan McLoughlin spoke of his study in Dublin using ketamine to try to prolong remission after ECT. He also explained his work using ketamine as an additional treatment combined with antidepressants for hospitalized patients in Dublin.

These are just examples. But they don’t even scratch the surface of all the topics covered these three days last week.

There’s no question that ketamine treatment has a long way to go to reach “mainstream status.” Everyone in the upper echelons of research and practice seems to agree we need to know so much more. The more we learn the more questions arise that we need answers to. But we know so much more than we did even two years ago.

This is the breakthrough we’ve wished for … depressed and anxious people, suicidal people, people wracked with PTSD, or torn by bipolar disorder, trapped by OCD. This is what you’ve yearned for. So have I. Many say this is the greatest breakthrough in fifty years in psychiatry. But we can go further than that.

This is the best, life-changing breakthrough for people who suffer with psychiatric mood disorders EVER.

There is so much more to learn…so much! Ketamine is the new frontier in psychiatry and the treatment of psychiatric mood disorders and more.

Ketamine for Psychiatric Disorders like Substance Use Disorders

One more story I have to tell you about. Elias Dakwar (we’ve talked about his work) discussed his research with ketamine in treating substance use disorders. You might remember our post on crack cocaine use in February.

We talked about how Dakwar and his team studied responses of crack cocaine users. Those who were currently using and had no intention of stopping. When they had been given ketamine infusions the day before being offered either crack or money, they had the motivation to turn and choose money, and their craving was so diminished that they also had the power to turn down crack.

That brings up something we’ve talked about here: that ketamine restores initiative and motivation.

All in all, this conference gathering of great scientific minds, young researchers, and brilliant clinicians was a huge step forward for the needs of depressed and anxious people. A huge step forward for the use of ketamine in the treatment of psychiatric disorders.

Research is ongoing to test ketamine’s use with psychotherapy, ECT, TMS, and traditional antidepressants. Plus, its effectiveness intravenously, intramuscularly, subcutaneously, orally, and intranasally.

Now we’ve all gone back to our home offices, and our work will continue. And this time next year I hope we’ll see that ketamine’s advantages have taken another big step forward.

Meanwhile, at Innovative Psychiatry, we’re still here providing IV ketamine treatment. And we see life-changing results with it for people with treatment-resistant depression, bipolar depression, social anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD, OCD, and suicidal thoughts.

If you’re suffering from a mood or anxiety disorder, treatment hasn’t helped, I’m sure you’re far more concerned about your desire to feel better and function again, than about a conference. And that’s why we’re here and want to help. We try to offer you the best that the world has to offer. This time from the first International Conference for Ketamine and Related Compounds.

Call us or schedule an appointment here to be evaluated.

There is hope. You can feel truly better.

So don’t judge your next treatment by the ones you’ve had before. This time, chances are, you’ll see a difference. And you’ll remember how to live again.

To your life and the emerging of your best self,

Lori Calabrese, MD

March 26, 2018
Ketamine: What’s Dose Got To Do With It?

Ketamine’s Power Against Depression

We’ve talked before about how ketamine works through a variety of actions to relieve depression in people with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD).

Like the hero in an epic movie, ketamine treatment works in several brain areas at once to improve brain functioning. It triggers a cascade of actions that repair, restore order, and create peace once again.

We know that ketamine turns on mRNA which switches DNA “on” to turbo boost brain-derived-neurotrophic-factor (BDNF). BDNF, in turn, serves as an ultra-rich compost to speed up the dense growth of synapses, dendrites, and dendritic spines to rebuild a superhighway of infrastructure in the brain for signals to move rapidly from cell to cell and deep into the brain.

This is AMAZING.

And there’s more…

While this is happening, there are lazy little G proteins piled high on lipid rafts in the neuronal cell membranes — and they’re needed to enhance signaling along these dense pathways. But they can’t do their job because they’re just piled on those rafts … and unable to operate.

Ketamine, like a proverbial grade school hall monitor, quickly causes these G proteins to slide off those lipid rafts, get into place, and get back to work with their signal transmission job.

The result of all this is a brain that’s communicating at lightning speed again within hours, rather than weeks or months.

Genetic Tests

We’ve talked before about tests that help indicate whether a person is likely to respond to ketamine or not.

One of these tests checks a certain genetic biomarker that signals a person’s likelihood to respond to ketamine treatment. It’s a certain allele, which is one of two more forms of a gene that can arise on the chromosome for BDNF.

The alleles are called Val and Met. You can be a Val/Val, a Val/Met, or a Met/Met for BDNF.

It’s the Met allele that seemed to impede the antidepressant effect of ketamine treatment for depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD, OCD and suicidal thinking. Early on, it was reported that those with the Met/Met alleles were least likely to respond to ketamine treatment, and those with Val/Val were most likely. (Those with Val/Met fell in between.)

However, we’ve noticed in our practice that sometimes our patients who don’t have the Val/Val alleles, and don’t seem to respond to ketamine rapidly, tell us weeks or months later that they’re feeling so much better, and are enjoying their lives again. Hmmmm …

What Causes the Delay?

That made us wonder what made the difference …? Why were some of those specific patients enjoying a delayed, but just as robust, response to ketamine treatment…?

So … a new study shines a light on this mystery. (Science is so fantastic!)

A team of researchers from Taiwan and the US has found evidence that ketamine’s antidepressant effects are related to the size of the dose given.

And, importantly, evidence that Met carriers respond to ketamine.

First Study to Explore Ketamine with Taiwanese Subjects

The researchers conducted an elegant double-blind placebo-controlled study of 71 Taiwanese adults who received one ketamine infusion.

Neuroscientists believe ketamine treatment’s effectiveness as an antidepressant depends, in part, on the BDNF gene.

An important fact is that Chinese people typically have at least one copy of the less responsive BDNF allele, Met.

So in testing the effectiveness of ketamine treatment for these Taiwanese participants, the researchers were testing whether ketamine relieves depression in people with the Val/Met allele, and also whether the size of ketamine’s dose determines effectiveness.

Huge. AND exciting.

Ketamine: What’s dose got to do with it?

This was the first study to compare the effectiveness of two different doses of ketamine — 0.2 mg/kg and 0.5 mg/kg.

The researchers genotyped the participants and confirmed that the Met allele is the predominant BDNF gene in this specific group of people — they were Val/Met or Met/Met. In European descendants, the BDNF gene alleles most often seen are the Val/Val pair.

Another factor they explored was whether ketamine’s effectiveness varied depending on the severity of the patient’s depression.

Size of Dose Determined Effectiveness

All in all, they learned that lower doses of ketamine, such as 0.2 mg/kg, weren’t effective at all. (Good to know, because we’ve never used doses this low.)

So if you’re asking, “Ketamine: What’s dose got to do with effective depression treatment…?” you now know that tiny doses under 0.5mg/kg are too low to treat depression and other psychiatric mood disorders.

Only the higher dose, 0.5 mg/kg, was effective, which validates the current most commonly used starting dose, and the starting dose that we use, too.

Also, when they evaluated ketamine’s effectiveness in those with mild depression, they found it really wasn’t effective. (We’ll get back to this later.)

But it was remarkably effective in those with moderate to severe depression.

So, we know that ketamine is effective in people with moderate-to-severe and treatment-resistant depression. And we know it can be effective in people with the Met allele for BDNF — as well as in people with the Val allele, of course. All you Mets, take heart.

Questions That Need Answers

But there’s so much more to be explored.

More studies — for instance, to determine how ketamine infusions could be used to help you if you have mild depression. Using a different dose, different intervals…?

Don’t you wonder… what if a study were performed among subjects from an equal distribution of multiple BDNF gene variants… if we could learn more about what role the Val and Met alleles play in fast response or delayed response to IV ketamine treatment?

Or whether a higher dose than 0.5 is needed for those with the Met allele? Or a longer infusion? Maybe a longer series like 9 infusions instead of 6?

The more we learn, the more we can hopefully bring relief and remission. Relief and remission to adults and adolescents with suicidal thoughts, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, social anxiety, PTSD, OCD, and substance use disorders.

Exciting, isn’t it?

If you suffer from depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, social anxiety, PTSD, OCD, suicidal thinking, or substance use disorders, there’s hope. At Innovative Psychiatry, most of those we treat with IV ketamine achieve remarkable improvement — as in remission — from their symptoms.

We use the most precise state-of-the-art methods of administration. We provide a thorough psychiatric evaluation of our patients’ needs and progress.

And we see people get better every day.

If you’re suffering from symptoms that haven’t responded to other treatments — or if you’re just tired of side effects that never end — call us, or send us a note here. You can feel better, with a new initiative, motivation, and joy. Soon.

To the restoration of your best self,

Lori Calabrese, MD

March 19, 2018
Help Your Kids Prepare for the Future: Learn Psychiatric Symptoms with Teens
Do you know how many students will be registering for college this year? Have you thought about it..? Take a wild guess.

Close to 4 million…! Can you imagine the diversity in that number? That’s more than the population of Los Angeles!

Serious Challenges for an Adolescent or Young Adult

In addition to the size of this group, there are also stressors this LA-sized group of people is facing for the first time in their lives.

Their first time to leave home, their first time to enter the workforce, their first time to be accountable to strangers on their own, while taking much harder classes than they’ve taken before.

They’re moving to a new place full of strangers, among whom they’ll hope to find friends.

Plus unlimited access to alcohol and illicit substances. Easy access to sex. And the responsibility to recognize within themselves signs of health changes…including mental health.

It’s a tall order. And every college and university is packed with a whole crowd of them each and every semester.

Going to College with Anxiety or Depression

If your teen – who’s becoming an adult – has already been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder, you’re a step ahead in one sense. You and your child have faced the illness, and hopefully, she has adjusted to her medications. It’s much easier for a teen to go through that process at home than in another city, away from the comfort and understanding of her family.

You still need to devise a plan to help her maintain stability and go for help when the stability changes.

So it’s vital to her success that you ask her psychiatrist and therapist if they offer telepsychiatry so that they can follow her when she’s at school. If not, ask them for referrals in the area or contact the counseling office for therapists and psychiatrists near campus or in the area.

Then make calls and explore. If you can establish a connection with the professionals your son or daughter could see in case of difficulty, it will make it much easier for her to go for help if symptoms rear their ugly head.

Keep some things in mind:

1. She’s likely to make some mistakes… Don’t fix them. Listen and encourage her to think through some solutions.

2. Be sure she knows where to go to fill prescriptions.

3. Check on her regularly. Without hammering her with “mental health” questions, find ways to get updates on red flag areas. Clinical psychologist Bobbi Wegner says to watch the “trilogy of health”, i.e., sleeping patterns, eating, and energy. If any of these are out of whack, dig deeper.

Then, if something’s not right, remind her of the psychiatrist and therapist you found, and encourage her to make an appointment. If she can’t seem to do that due to anxiety, phobias, or depressive symptoms, you may need to intervene and help her seek treatment.

“My Son’s Resilient and a High Achiever. He’ll Be Fine.”

Famous last words… so to speak. What if your child seems resilient and confident about studies, friends, his life while he’s in high school…?

Don’t let yourself fall into la la land, and tell yourself no news is good news. That’s just not true.

l. Putting your head in the sand about potential mental health symptoms when your kid goes to college, is as silly as sunbathing on top of a travel trailer while watching an approaching tornado fifty yards away. Feeling confident isn’t going to determine the future.

What’s the saying…? Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Learn about anxiety and depression just as you have learned about meningitis, pneumonia, and the flu.

2. Be prepared to hear your son say he’s overwhelmed during semester finals. Listen, and offer to help. Sometimes that’s all they need to hear… but if he wants to keep talking, welcome it.

3. Make sure your kids know it’s completely acceptable to ask for help.

Here are some tips for conversations to help your teen communicate his feelings and learn psychiatric symptoms:
- I’m so sorry you’re feeling like this. Do you have any thoughts about why?
- It sounds to me like you don’t want to go to class. Why do you think that is?
- What do you think is going on…?
- How can I help…?
- I’ve noticed so and so…, how do you feel about it?
Questions like this tend to open conversation while helping him figure out for himself what’s going on.

Start these conversations when your kids are young…so that by adolescence they’ll be building some skill to recognize problems – as well as solutions – themselves. This gives them equipment to manage their emotions and fears when they’re on their own.

Will Your Child Suffer Mental Health Symptoms in the Future?

Let’s open up communication with kids about their mental health…to prepare them for college and the future. Let’s learn psychiatric symptoms with teens, and build a family awareness together. It’s empowering, for you and for them.

There is no way to predict the responses your child will have as he enters – and forges through – adulthood. If he seems resilient now, that’s a great start. The child that appears to be the most resilient may continue on as a successful Unsinkable Molly Brown. Or he may find the harder he works, the more overwhelming life seems to become for him.

Especially if he suffers physical injury or severe emotional setbacks. Your resilient 13-year-old can become a burdened 28-year-old…or a disabled 34-year-old..if at some point he needs help and doesn’t get the help he needs.

Clearly, students need to be having conversations with their parents earlier. Mood disorders or learning disabilities need to be identified when they’re as young as possible. Then treatment can be in place before college is considered.

Further, if kids have struggled through middle school and high school with social anxiety, that anxiety may spread to more areas of life through increased pressure and stress.

Social anxiety combined with depression may morph to agoraphobia (anxiety in situations where you perceive the environment to be unsafe with no easy way to get away) given the requisite stressors. And agoraphobia can seriously interrupt a student’s progress for the semester.

Many parents who don’t worry about their high-achieving child have been shocked and felt helpless when he breaks under the pressure. That’s not to say you should be worrying…but rather proactively preparing, just in case.

When To Educate Yourself and Your Kids about Mental Wellbeing

Now, think about this: What if parents started the conversation when their kids are 11 or 12, and kept an ongoing dialogue about how things affect their child? What if a child grew into adolescence informed, so she could recognize suffering in her friends or herself?

What if she had learned to see psychiatric symptoms through the empathetic view of her family, rather than just as a list she and friends snicker about in health class?

Just as we parents talk to our children about sexuality, what if we talked to them about mental health? What if we learned together about signs and symptoms, and with that learning, also learned compassion…?

What if we started now, no matter what their age?

So what do you say about mental health if you’ve never discussed it before with your 17-year-old?

Maybe something like…”I’ve been reading a lot, and realize there’s a lot I don’t know about anxiety and depression. But I’m learning these disorders can happen to anyone…do you know anyone who suffers from something like this? panic attacks? social anxiety? mood swings?

Or if you see symptoms in your teen, maybe lay safety groundwork…” If I promise to not freak out, would you tell me how you’re feeling about things these days?”

The dialogue will see you through, and will usher them, into college safely and with confidence. And in the long term — through clear and transparent communication. Through empathy and respect for themselves and others.

Teaching Your Child to Take Care of Her Mental Health

By fostering an atmosphere of understanding and openness in your home, you can proactively learn – with your children – what mental and emotional well-being looks like. And how to recognize warning signs of illness.

You teach your children about sex. You teach them about drugs. Teach them about mental health, as well.

When your child has grown into a broad comprehension of health, encompassing physical and mental well-being, he can naturally seek out mental health professionals when he sees anxiety or depression symptoms in himself.

Prepare your child to care for his health and wellbeing. Help him locate mental health professionals as well as the campus clinic when he starts to college.

Sometimes Giving Your Child “Room” Is Too Much Space

Fearing the mistakes of “helicopter parenting,” many parents don’t recognize in their adolescents when it’s time to seek help. They give their child room to work through his own problems. Unfortunately, a severely depressed adolescent often lacks the energy or stability to seek the treatment he needs or make decisions about his health.

Way too often, these withdrawn teens feel like failures. And what may look like immaturity to parents and teachers may actually be psychiatric symptoms.

Psychiatric symptoms are not the same thing as a lack of “maturity.” In fact, untreated psychiatric symptoms can be an obstacle to the proper development of maturity.

Psychiatric Symptoms in Teens

There are also those teens who managed to get through high school without treatment. Who didn’t realize life and school wasn’t this hard for everyone else. They just keep pushing through, white-knuckling it every day, every week.

When they finally graduate, they hope they’ll be better now. But then the stressors of living away from home, carrying a heavy load of classes, keeping up with all the reading and assignments…well, it gets to be too overwhelming. Not to mention test anxiety in college students is through the roof.

They were able to continue functioning until now. Maybe they’re in their first or second semester. Then one day they go to bed in the dorm, and just can’t get up in the morning. Or the morning after that. Or the morning after that…. And finally, the guilt and shame and inability to face the pressure any more lead to failing grades. Academic suspension. Shame and guilt.

Their parents are blind-sided. Had no idea their daughter hadn’t been going to class. And they wonder why…?

By learning about mental health together with your kids, you both are prepared if anyone in the family…or friends for that matter… begins to exhibit psychiatric symptoms. So, rather than jumping to the conclusion that your child is rebelling or doesn’t appreciate the opportunity you are paying for him to have…you both can talk about symptoms.

Symptoms to Watch For

Remember the trilogy? Sleep patterns, eating, and energy.

Your child just may be too depressed to get out of bed. He may not have the energy to face his life. In fact, he may be eating constantly…. Or forgetting to eat altogether.

Your kid would not be the first or the 1000th kid who displayed these symptoms in college. But educating yourself and your children about what can happen when stress is too high, or in the wake of a tragedy, helps you all to productively respond if it does happen.

Helping your children learn ways to relieve stress as they’re growing up can also help. But above all, be informed, and help your children to be informed too.

If you have a child or young adult who seems to display symptoms of psychiatric mood disorders, call us. We can help him feel better and function at his best again.

At Innovative Psychiatry, we see wonderful results from the use of IV ketamine treatment in 80% of those who have not been helped by any other treatment. Remarkable relief, initiative, hope, and erasure of suicidal thinking. There’s nothing else like it to relieve symptoms and restore you to full function again.

To learn more about IV ketamine treatment, read this and this to get started. Also, if you don’t have children headed for college, but know someone who does, consider sending them this article to help them prepare, too. Niece or nephew? They might benefit by preparing now, to better manage what comes later.

Your child has his whole life ahead, and there are extraordinary ways to treat psychiatric mood disorders that we’ve never had before. Contact us for an appointment.

To the development of your teen’s best self,

Lori Calabrese, MD
March 12, 2018
Breaking News! Ketamine’s Rapid Relief of Depression in the Lateral Habenula

Ever get tired of the ongoing discussions about depression…? What causes it, and what actually helps people feel better? How many people have you heard complain that they don’t believe in psychiatric medicine because “it doesn’t work?” People who say they feel like guinea pigs and are fed up…?

Or…maybe you’re one of those people…? Who are sick and tired of feeling crummy most of the time? Without the energy or initiative to get through a day…or even get out of bed? …Who are disillusioned with psychiatric prescriptions and therapy? Who feel resigned to drag through life without hope…?

Well, take heart.

For you, hope is emerging and taking hold. Neuroscience is uncovering more and more information that has eluded us since the beginning of man.

In the last 15 years or so, breakthroughs led to experimental trials, then grew into more widespread use that seemed to be turning a corner on this long, arduous, uphill climb.

Barbaric treatments that all but put a depressed person out of commission gave way to less overwhelming medications and therapies that only helped some depressed patients. Suicides continued or increased.

But research pushed forward. Then, a small group tried an anesthesia medication on depressed patients and…

Eureka! They felt better. And a new era began.

More about that in a moment… but first, let’s take a look back…

Over 5000 Years to Crack the Depression Code

Since the beginning of civilization, people have sought a solution to depression.

As far back as 2000 BC, in the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia, where psychiatric disorders were believed to be caused by demonic possession and were treated by priests rather than physicians.

Then, around 400 BC, Hippocrates, known as the father of medicine, called it melancholia and theorized its cause was an excess of black bile in the spleen. He gets credit for being the first physician to declare that illness was caused by physical problems in the body rather than gods or spirits.

Hippocrates offered treatments like blood-letting, among other things. But … he was trying to find help for his patients.

These meandering beliefs and others have accompanied the quest to understand the cause of depression and to find remedies that actually work.

IV Ketamine is Depression’s BREAKTHROUGH

It’s only now, in the 21st century, that breakthroughs, knowledge, and effective treatment are emerging and gaining momentum.

We’ve learned a ton about ketamine in the past few years, and it’s important to keep it straight. Really understand it.

For instance, we’ve learned that it turns on mRNA which switches on DNA to infuse dynamic growth into the brain-derived-neurotrophic-factors (BDNF).

And that the BDNF is like a compost of sorts, that richly empowers the neurons (brain cells) to proliferate densely with branches and connections that double, triple, quadruple and turbo-charge the development of more synapse connections and branches.

We’ve learned that IV ketamine slides G proteins off the lipid rafts they’re piled upon in the cell membrane…and that gives the Gs the freedom to enhance the transmission of signals throughout the brain, which reverses depression. And we’ve learned that ketamine causes these things to take place fast. Within hours.

We’ve learned it does all this in minuscule doses, much smaller than the doses used in anesthesia.

IV ketamine infusions have brought a dawn of new hope for patients with psychiatric mood disorders, and there’s more.

In addition to all this, ketamine also stops – erases – suicidal thoughts in 4 hours or less.

We’ve never had any treatment that could do that.

IV ketamine treatment is saving lives. Every single day.

And now, the hardworking and dedicated neuroscientists who’ve been studying, testing, and researching ketamine around the globe have made a breathtaking discovery.

Ketamine’s Rapid Relief of Depression: It BLOCKS Neuronal Bursts in the Lateral Habenula (LHb)

We now know that IV ketamine blocks the bursts of brain cells in the lateral habenula that drive depression. This area is often called the “anti-reward” area of the brain because it prevents the reward area of the brain from functioning properly.

Ok, yes, I get that it sounds like Greek. Lateral habenula…who ever heard of it?? It’s not Greek, it’s Latin. Stay with me.

The lateral habenula is located deep in the center of the brain. And there are actually two. A right lateral and a left lateral habenula…connected to the hindbrain by nerve pathways. When viewed from above, this system looks something like a horse bridle, if the hindbrain is the horse’s nose, and the pathways are reins.

For this reason, the structure the nerve pathways connect to is named after the Latin root word for “rein.”

But that’s where the reference to equestrian activities ends. The habenulae, as in both of them, are part of the limbic system, which regulates emotion, motivation, learning, and memory.

Now, if you do something hoping for and expecting a reward — and the reward doesn’t happen — neurons in the LHb burst in rhythmic patterns to dampen the sense of reward. The idea is to help the brain understand to let go of the hope of reward and move on to something else.

The Problem with Bursting Cells

But here’s the problem. When you’re depressed, those bursting cells go overboard, bursting far too much and too fast. And rather than just dampen expectation of reward, their bursting dampens everything. It renders you hopeless. Until you’re in despair.

A team of neuroscientists led by Hailin Hu, did a series of very elegant studies to see the effect of ketamine on the lateral habenula.

And it was pretty spectacular.

Working with laboratory animals, the team induced a depression-like condition on some of them. The depressed ones moved into despair so severe that they didn’t even try to survive in a severely stressful situation — they just gave up.

In this condition, researchers observed that a small portion of the neurons in their LHb fired in repetitive bursts in far greater numbers and speed than the LHb of normal, non-depressed mice. This overly excessive bursting of anti-reward rapid fire worsened their depressive condition.

Researchers also found that when the mice had gone through severely stressful experiences, they also had these quick rapid-fire bursts in far greater numbers than mice who were comfortable.

So severe depression and severe stress both resulted in an overabundance of rapid-fire anti-reward signals that drowned out any benefit from the reward center in their brains.

But look what happened: After researchers dosed the stressed, depressed, despairing mice with ketamine, the rhythmic bursting slowed way down… to almost normal. Which allowed the reward center to shower the mice with serotonin and dopamine and they quickly felt better.

Then, to test that response, the researchers forced those bursting cells to fire, and even when they did, the mice who had ketamine still showed no signs of depression.

Exciting, isn’t it??

Ketamine’s Rapid and Robust Antidepressant Effect

So we’re beginning to understand how ketamine can act so fast. It releases the reward areas from those strong anti-reward signals. And the reward signals of dopamine and serotonin are able to find their mark and make you start feeling better very quickly.

All this suggests that as more medications for mood disorders are developed, medications that block the LHb anti-reward bursts could also effectively relieve depression. That opens all kinds of new ideas for researchers to pursue for depression relief.

We’re finally getting down to what really works. It’s about time.

We’re finding new solutions for mood and anxiety disorders.

At Innovative Psychiatry, we’re learning more all the time. This new study has opened more doors and windows about another extraordinary benefit of IV ketamine treatment. The power to block the bursting, to stop the work of the anti-reward bursts, means that it can lift the brakes that have prevented you from feeling showered with relief, joy, and gratitude. When burst firing stops, you begin to flourish.

It’s just one more way ketamine works to smash depression.

If you suffer from depression, anxiety, panic disorder, social anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD, OCD, or suicidal thinking, IV ketamine treatment can relieve you so you can live a fulfilling and productive life again. You can enjoy initiative, creativity, motivation, joy, resilience… and you can function.

We see 80% success in treatment-resistant mood disorders. And 80% is the best result seen from any treatment known today.

Tired of the sadness, numbness, anxiety, fear, emotional pain, mood swings, or thoughts of death? Call us. We can help you feel better, live better…and have hope for the future.

To your best self in the months ahead,

Lori Calabrese, M.D.

March 4, 2018
4 Subtypes of Depression Target More Effective Treatment for You

Depression’s the Worst!

It drains your energy, robs you of enjoyment of ANYTHING, isolates you and makes you feel like no one in the entire world cares. Makes you feel like you’re a burden on the people you know. Makes you feel achey and lethargic.

Shuts down your brain so you can’t think. You can’t do your job. Can’t take care of responsibilities. Can’t function. You just can’t do. Or care.

What you do feel is worthless, hopeless, burdensome, guilty. It can even make you want to stop existing. To disappear. To die.

If all this sounds like you, you’re not alone. Not by a long shot.

Disability Plagues Depressed People

Did you know depression is the #1 cause of disability in this country? Ahead of arthritis, stroke, substance abuse, and COPD. Does that surprise you?

It should.

Because treatment hasn’t been as effective as we wish. But more about that later.

This is why so much you hear from psychiatrists, drug companies … and why social media refers to the epidemic of depression.

Well, in the interest of learning more about depression to find more effective treatment, a team of researchers set out on a quest.

Their idea was to find out how to “define” depression. To tease it into types based on the connections between various brain cell (neuron) clusters and how they behaved. Up till now, psychiatrists, psychologists, and neuroscientists have used the DSM V criteria to diagnose various subtypes of depression.

While this has been a great help, it doesn’t address brain changes and characteristics for various psychiatric disorders. But, neuroscientists need specific physiologic details that can be measured by machines rather than by subjective symptom reports and observation.

Brain Circuit Study about Depression

The study, funded by Brain and Behavior Research Foundation and the National Institute of Mental Health, used brain scans to study connections in the brain in a variety of both depressed and healthy subjects.

The study, led by Connor Liston, MD, PhD, included neuroscience research teams from five prominent universities.

To rethink the general approach to diagnosis and treatment, they set out to identify new subtypes of depression. These were based on dysfunction in mood-related brain circuits. If they could understand more about the neuronal connections in the brain during various types of depression, maybe they could learn more about what type of treatment would be successful in each type.

This could potentially eliminate the “trial and error” approach that has plagued psychiatric treatment the last fifty years. Patients wouldn’t have to take a medication for 8-12 weeks to find out if it helps.

They made use of brain scans of these subjects periodically, and studied the differences in their scans. They also interviewed them each to correlate the symptoms of a given patient with that patient’s brain scan.

What they discovered in simple terms, is that these brain scan images fell into four different categories. With four different clusters of symptoms… and of those four there were two primary differences.

Anhedonia vs. Anxiety

Two of the four were dominated by severe anxiety, and the other two were dominated by anhedonia, or loss of interest or pleasure in things they previously enjoyed.

Those in the severe anxiety segment also tended to lose weight, and reported difficulty sleeping. While those two in the anhedonia segment tended to gain weight and crave carbohydrates, as well as slept long hours, such as 19 hours at a time.

You can see that though all four groups were diagnosed with depression, that the two groups of subtypes had almost opposite symptoms.

Two subtypes

To be certain they’d derived these four groupings correctly, they did the same scans and interviews with another set of people in a different city with different scanners, and different interviewers.

The results verified their findings. 4 groups. 2 main categories: one dominated by anxiety and the other by anhedonia.

If any of this is sounding familiar to you, there’s good reason.

4 Subtypes of Depression

Even the DSM V defines depression as a patient reporting 5 out of 9 symptoms that include extreme opposites. Such as weight gain or weight loss. Insomnia or hypersomnia (excessive sleepiness or sleeping). Psychomotor agitation or psychomotor retardation (restlessness or slowed movement).

You may have a little anhedonia, but are plagued by severe anxiety in many situations. You may feel restless and agitated. Along with that, you likely find it impossible to get much sleep at night, if any. And you worry and worry. In addition, you may notice you’re dropping weight.

On the other hand, if that doesn’t describe your symptoms, you may have minimal anxiety but have no feelings of pleasure, or enjoyment. And you may just want to go to bed and stay there. In fact, once you do, it may feel impossible to get out of bed again the next day. Plus, your waist is ballooning causing you to wear larger clothes.

We call it all depression. But the symptoms aren’t the same.

Liston and his team identified areas of the brain affected that led to this disparity in symptoms and named them Subtype 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Depression Subtypes Treated with TMS

The last significant step in the study required identifying which subtypes were improved by Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and which weren’t. Learn more about TMS here.

In their tests, they placed the magnetic coil over the dorsomedial portion of the brain, as opposed to the often-used left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

They discovered the most receptive subtypes of depression to TMS treatment were subtype 1 and subtype 3. Most dramatically, subtype 1.

They also learned that use of the clinical subtypes and connectivity symptoms as criteria for TMS treatment was 96% effective. But choosing TMS treatment based on symptoms alone was only 63% effective. And connectivity alone is only78% effective.

The use of clinical symptoms combined with subtype diagnosis yields a dramatic improvement in predicting the best treatment for each subtype of depression.

The Future in Diagnosing Depression by Subtype

So … clearly, the first diagnosis is the one that determines you’re depressed and need treatment. But this approach to diagnosis will advance from the laboratory to the psychiatrist’s office. This ability to determine what type of depression you have will empower psychiatrists to get you better, more effective treatment, faster.

There is lots more research needed, such as trying the same study with antidepressants, anxiolytics, and IV ketamine using this same model.

And of course, software will be developed to help us use these tools.

The good news is that treatment for psychiatric mood disorders is advancing fast on many levels. The hopelessness that pervaded no less than a third of all depressed patients, when no medication seemed to help, is dissipating.

At Innovative Psychiatry, in South Windsor, CT, we offer TMS. TMS has demonstrated improvement for most who have anxiety related disorders. 75% of patients in our office who are treated with TMS experience dramatic relief and improvement.

We also provide IV ketamine treatment, and consistently see 80% of of our patients dramatically respond to treatment — even when everything else has failed them. A small percentage return for a follow-u or booster infusion periodically — if they need it or if a huge stressor occurs in their lives and sets off the first subtle signs of depression again.

And of the 20% that don’t immediately respond to ketamine in our practice, another 7% reach remission a few months later.

What’s more, IV ketamine treatment can erase suicidal thoughts in minutes or an afternoon. Ketamine can be life-saving.

If you have endured depression symptoms for a long time, and other treatments haven’t helped, call us. We’ve been working to find new ways to relieve treatment-resistant mood disorders for many years. We want to help you get your life back. Or …maybe build it for the first time. Schedule an appointment here, or just call. Your life can be so much better, in fact, you can be the best you ever.

To the emergence of your best self ever,

Lori Calabrese, M.D.

February 3, 2018
IV Ketamine Treatment for the Saddest Day of the Year…? Maybe so, if it’s SAD – Seasonal Affective Disorder Treatment

So maybe you’ve heard of Blue Monday…? January 15, the saddest day of the year. This 13 year old hoax needs a little straightening out. See if you agree. Blue Monday? What does that have to do with psychiatry?

Pretty much nothing … but let me explain.

In 2005, a guy named Dr. Cliff Arnall in Wales devised a formula for determining the single saddest, most depressing day of the year.

Was he a neurologist? No. A psychiatrist? Not even close.

He was actually working to help a travel agency determine the most likely day that people would book a tropical holiday. The “psychology” behind it measured up to this: When you feel the worst, you want to escape. Get away. So what’s the next best thing…? A vacation on the beach! Once you’ve set up the get-away, you have something to look forward to, and you feel excited about it, and life gets easier. At least that’s the theory.

The “Gloominess” Calculation

And what did he base his calculations on to determine when you’ll feel the worst?

Of course, it had to land on a Monday…who likes Mondays..? Plus, it had to be after the long stretch of holiday excitement from Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years was past.

And it needed to be far enough past Christmas shopping that you’d have received the bills and wish you’d spent less. And far enough past January 1st to have broken your New Year’s resolutions.

Then…add to that the gloomy winter weather, the overcast skies… remember he didn’t live in Southern California, but in Wales…the cold and snow and rain, and the short days and long nights at that time of year.

So in Arnall’s equation to the right, W=weather, D=debt, d=monthly salary, T=time since Christmas, Q=time since failing new year’s resolutions, M=low motivational levels and N_a=the feeling for a need to take action.

Now, rather than taking the time to disprove his equation, let’s just be real. Arnall was quite pleased that he was paid for his clever equation, which earned him 1650 British Pounds, or about $2265.93 in US dollars. A drop in the bucket compared to the revenue gained by the travel agency who hired him. For them, it was a great ROI.

Internet Advertising … Is It Always True?

But the fact is, there is no truth to the idea that January 15 is the saddest day of the year. Just as there is no truth to Audi’s “Truth in Engineering” slogan, since we all know they cheated on the emissions tests with about half a million cars. Not as truthful as they claim, are they?

Audi’s slogan is part of a PR marketing campaign intended to sell cars, and Arnall’s formula was part of a PR campaign intended to drive business to a travel agency. Neither one was a scam, but rather a marketing gimmick.

And the fact remains, he just made it up!

There is NO saddest day of the year. And if this time of the year is hard for you, that may be a seasonal problem. And we can help with treatment, if you need it.

So, my suggestion is that social media participants stop aiding and abetting this 2005 advertising gimmick, so that we can talk about things like sadness, moodiness, and depression in real and helpful ways.

Sound good?

SAD – Seasonal Affective Disorder Treatment

This time of year can be difficult for those who are sensitive to light, or the lack of it. While some are unaffected by these short, overcast days, you may be one who is deeply affected by the cloud cover, the cold, the gloominess…

And if that happens, it’s great to do something to brighten your mood. Go to a movie, or get your hair done, maybe shop for a new shirt. If that helps you feel a lighter mood, then you’ve accomplished a worthwhile goal.

Some people know that this mood slide begins early in the fall, every year. And you might find that light therapy helps. The idea is to use a 10,000 LUX light box or lamp for about 30 minutes very early in the morning to replace the light you’re missing in your environment. There are some variables to this depending on you, related to how far the light is placed from your eyes, and how much you can tolerate the brightness.

One of the ways around this to to use a visor with a 10K lux light on the inner brim. They are so versatile and easy to wear that you can walk around, make a cup of coffee, make the bed, get ready for your day, all while wearing the visor. You’re not stuck sitting still in front of a light on a table.

For some people this can really help. For others with seasonal affective disorder (SAD), even light therapy might not be enough. SAD is also called winter depression and it can occur episodically, just when fall strikes, and last through spring. Sometimes, people who have depression chronically or who have frequent episodes always seem to have a seasonal exacerbation — a winter worsening. And an antidepressant along with light therapy may bring you relief.

However, some people suffer so severely from depression when it occurs as seasonal affective disorder, winter after winter, that they have periods when they can’t function at all. And just like any form of severe depression, seasonal affective disorder can be crippling, even devastating.

Where you’re too sluggish to function, and you feel hopeless, helpless, fatigued, and gloomy. And gloominess advances to despondency… Despondency may even progress to thoughts of ending your life.

If this sounds familiar…if you’re feeling this way and having thoughts you haven’t admitted to anyone yet, there is hope.

In fact, there’s more than HOPE. There’s a SOLUTION.

IV Ketamine Treatment Beats SAD – Seasonal Affective Disorder

Until the last several years, only a third of depressed patients were helped by antidepressants. Which has been wonderful for those patients, but what about those who didn’t improve?

Well for those, another 1/3 felt some improvement with a second try using another antidepressant, or a combination of medications.

And for those who did find help, life had hope again. They could return to work, resume their lives and relationships.

But what about the 1/3 who were left in the pits of depression and despair…? What about them?

There’s now another form of treatment for severe depression, and it is as effective for severe seasonal affective disorder, or severe winter depression, as it is for depression any time of the year. It’s called IV ketamine treatment, and it’s not just 33% effective. IV ketamine treatment is effective in treating 80% of treatment-resistant cases of depression at Innovative Psychiatry in South Windsor, CT.

That means that if you’ve tried medications and treatments that haven’t helped, you may be a good candidate for IV ketamine treatment.

IV Ketamine Treatment Operates Like a S.W.A.T. Team Against Depression

Ketamine acts on different aspects of the brain than traditional antidepressants. Rather than affecting serotonin or dopamine receptors, it works on rebuilding the synapse branches that connect nerve cells in the brain to each other.

Let’s pretend you’re in the old west. And you need to get a message to your family in Boston that you’ve arrived safely in San Francisco. You want to send a message by telegraph. So you go to the telegraph office, and they tell you that the lines have gone down between San Francisco and Boston due to tornadoes and fires. There’s no connection.

And you can’t reach anyone until all those lines are repaired.

IV Ketamine Treatment at Work

The synapse connections from signaling cells to more signaling cells in your brain have been broken down, weakened, or destroyed by the stress of depression. This is what depression does to your brain, and these connections have to be repaired and restored so you can get the information signals moving fast around your brain. When that happens, you’ll feel upbeat again.

IV ketamine treatment helps clear away the old broken branches, called dendrites and dendritic spines, to make way for new ones. Then it goes to work fast to rebuild new healthy, resilient connections that proliferate throughout your brain.

The result? Your sad, dark, depressed brain comes alive and lights up like Times Square on New Year’s Eve!

All that activity and signaling lightens your mood brighter and brighter, restores your motivation, your hope, your energy, and your creativity…and you feel better. So much better, it may be the best you ever remember feeling.

IV ketamine treatment also stimulates mRNA to switch on DNA to turbo boost brain-derived-neurotrophic-factors (BDNA). BDNA is like a rich compost in the brain that helps to stimulate prolific and rampant growth of dendrites and dendritic spines in the synapse connections.

Another of ketamine’s talents involves moving lazy G proteins off their lipid rafts and back to work to enhance the signaling communication.

Now let’s be clear…IV ketamine treatment isn’t for everyone. But more than likely, it’s just what you need to recover, to find your best self again, and to revel in your life.

So don’t let the gloominess of the skies at this time of year drain your hope. At Innovative Psychiatry, we’re innovative and we offer solutions — even more than we’ve talked about here.

If your winters are too hard to bear, call us. Let’s talk about options that just may be available for you. And you can dance on your way to work, and twinkle about the joy of building a warm fire to sit by when you get home at the end of the day.

Winter can be about popcorn, hot chocolate, fuzzy sweaters, and crackling fires. Discover how you can enjoy the beauty of winter through advanced treatment options like IV ketamine treatment.

There’s hope for your winters.

To the liberation of your best self,

Lori Calabrese, MD

January 15, 2018
2018: Neuroscience Breakthroughs like IV Ketamine Treatment Mean Breakthroughs for YOU

Neuroscience breakthroughs like…IV ketamine treatment..?

Exactly.

2018 lies before us, like a valley that spreads to the horizon. And while it’s impossible to access the future, you can move forward knowing that each “today” you live has promise that was unheard of until recently.

Especially if you suffer from untreated or treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD, or anxiety — social anxiety, OCD or phobias.

Neuroscience researchers have been discovering more and more about treating psychiatric mood disorders that has transformed our approach to treatment — and the outcomes, as well.

The 21st century breakthrough of IV ketamine treatment for depression is transforming psychiatric medicine. Studying the effects of this treatment has revealed that depression and other mood disorders wear away at the signaling structures in the brain, leaving synapses, dendrites and dendritic spines broken, weakened, and sparse.

Neuroscience breakthroughs like IV ketamine treatment can bring breakthroughs to you … to your life.

The clearing away of those broken down structures, and the rebuilding of new ones in a denser, more prolific, forestation turns out to be key to treating depression. The old theory that depression was caused by levels of serotonin or dopamine that were too low … well they’re ancient history now.

Neuroscience Breakthroughs like IV Ketamine Treatment means Breakthroughs for You

Actually, so far we know of four ways ketamine clears away depression and erases suicidal thinking so quickly. And we’re watching with anticipation to see if research this year will reveal even more.

So another intervention ketamine performs is related to the G proteins that are piled on lipid rafts in the cell membranes of the neuron cells in the brain. Depressed people have these G proteins piled up on lipid rafts, where they can’t do their job to enhance signaling from synapse to synapse.

For those who are helped by traditional antidepressants, it takes several hours for those G proteins to slide off the rafts and become productive.

This is one reason it takes so long for traditional antidepressants to work for those they help. But when ketamine is given, they slide off the rafts within minutes. Remarkable.

Yet another healing action of ketamine is its effect on DNA. Turns out it also switches on mRNA which in turn flips the DNA switch to “ON” and that fire hoses BDNF across the synapse network.

BDNF is a growth factor like the richest of composts, and it empowers the dendrites and dendritic spines to burst into blooming branches like a giant oak tree. When the BDNF is fueled by ketamine, it turbo boosts that prolific branching of synapse structures, and your brain lights up like New York City. Unprecedented.

A well-lit brain is a happy brain.

Quoting from our earlier post entitled, “Breaking News: Another Way IV Ketamine Smashes Depression,”

As new synaptic connections are built, and greater communication between brain cells develops, the brain gains the ability to see things in a different perspective, and your outlook becomes brighter and healthier.

IV ketamine can jump start that process. Wait. No. It can turbo-charge it.

Extraordinary.

And the fourth action IV ketamine treatment performs is increasing glutamate levels to equip synapses to send more and faster signals across the brain, which traditional antidepressants don’t touch. Brilliant.

APA Task Force Issued a Consensus Statement in May 2017

What a year it’s been!

Four actions of ketamine we know about so far. The outcome is so extraordinary, so successful in such a large number of treatment-resistant cases, the American Psychiatry Association assigned a task force to issue a statement about the use of ketamine, this anesthesia medicine, off-label for treating depression.

Their statement was one of the most momentous and widely read articles of the year. In fact, it’s listed as #3 on JAMA Psychiatry’s “Most Talked About Articles of 2017.” Suffice it to say that those who were on the task force are true experts in our field. They’d seen ketamine’s power to lift depression right out of the water.

So they offered guidelines and cautions, and expressed their elation when interviewed that such a thing has happened in their lifetime.

They also specify that ketamine should be administered under a psychiatrist’s supervision.

TheHealthSite.com featured a list of the 6 best medical achievements of 2017 that everyone should know about…. Ketamine for depression stood strong on that list.

Of course, we know ketamine’s discovery didn’t happen this year. Many years of studies and clinical trials laid the groundwork for ketamine’s popularity now.

Thousands of patients have experienced the relief, the return of joy, initiative, creativity, and energy without side effects that ketamine provides.

Never before has there been such a medicine that treats so many disorders in such a huge percentage of the population as ketamine.

Ketamine has delivered HOPE.

At Innovative Psychiatry, we see 80% of patients who’ve suffered for years with treatment-resistant depression, crippling panic attacks, suicidal thoughts that won’t stop, severe bipolar disorder, PTSD, social anxiety, and OCD experience relief, restoration, and relaxation after treatment.

Another neuroscience breakthrough that means breakthroughs for you is Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation or TMS. It uses a coil to create a focused magnetic field over the front left side of your head. Specifically the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex region.

Then it sends tiny repetitive pulses deep into the brain to the emotion-regulation region. This stimulates the nerve cells and wakes them up. When they wake up, they begin to function again and give you better emotional regulation and function.

With TMS treatment, you sit quietly for anywhere from 16 to 37 minutes, five days a week for 6-8 weeks. About halfway through the series of treatments, depression begins to lift, and you begin to feel better and better. Again, faster than traditional antidepressants, and without any of the weight gain, sexual dysfunction, fatigue, or GI side effects they can cause.

The sophisticated technology of TMS continues to develop. Even 5 years ago TMS seemed experimental and wasn’t widely available. But, like ketamine,TMS built a strong reputation for effectiveness.

In general terms, clinicians and hospitals report 60-75% success with TMS around the US. We see 75% of our patients consistently respond — and often remit — at Innovative Psychiatry.

Again, HOPE.

Curcumin has gained an ever stronger reputation for its use as an adjunct in treating depression. Plus the connection between the brain, mood, and the strengthening of the microbiome is growing and gives us more and more opportunities to work with your diet and lifestyle to improve your mood.

No known treatment lifts depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD, or OCD in 100% of cases at this point. But these innovative treatment options prove successful for 75 – 80% of people who suffer in spite of traditional treatments. Obviously, hope soars for you if suffer with depression.

If you suffer from suicidal thoughts, depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD, social anxiety, OCD, you can feel better. The age of despair for sufferers is quickly dissipating. This has never been the case before. You really can feel better….lots better….as in really good.

If you’d like to start 2018 on a brighter, fuller, more functional, and happy path, call us. We live one day at a time, because “now” is all we really have. But live well. Live as the best you you can be.

To your very best self in 2018,

Lori Calabrese, MD

January 1, 2018
Holidays with Depressed Family…How’s It Going for You?

Holidays with Depressed Family … Not Easy

Are you enjoying this holiday season…? This time of shopping, music, winter hats and gloves… hot chocolate and marshmallows. Sounds like a Christmas carol, doesn’t it…?

On the other hand, there’s another side to the holidays, isn’t there?

Is setting up the tree, and unwrapping all your ornaments, something you make time for, and do with quiet joy…?

Or is it something you cram into the 45 minutes between work and the holiday chorus concert while the kids scarf down McDonald’s and fight over who gets the last cookie…?

The traffic to go anywhere is jammed in gridlock…so driving home from work… well there’s no way you’ll ever get home.

That “Christmas Card” Family Holiday

Wouldn’t we all love to have that dreamy kind of holiday…?

Yes, maybe.

But I’d like to suggest that a “perfect Christmas card holiday” wouldn’t be as perfect as it sounds. And here’s why.

Because it isn’t reeeeally sitting inside a Norman Rockwall painting on the wall that scratches that itch we all have for meaning in life.

And because it really isn’t silent perfection that fills our hearts — no matter how pretty the picture.

But isn’t it the people…?

Isn’t it being with Aunt Sue who talks a lot, and Grandma Jansen and her raucous humor, and the wild and wooly cousins we grew up with…the crazies and the noise….?

Life is messy. It’s not a pretty little picture, and we aren’t images on a holiday card. And you could even have a fault or two yourself … right?

Holidays with Depressed Family Members Can Be Messy

But you love them. And they love you. You have history together. You’re family.

If you have some people in your family who are a bit out there, eccentric and even occasionally annoying, that’s part of the patchwork quilt that makes you who you are and gives your family uniqueness.

And…If you have family members or friends who have the challenge of managing bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, PTSD … this may be a particularly taxing time for you and for them.

You know those stresses that turn your holiday moment into a chaotic nightmare…? As much as you feel the stress, they are possibly more distressed than you are. When you have all you can handle, and someone in the room makes a scene…or explodes into an outburst… or leaves and no one knows where he is…you want to pull your hair out.

Nothing wrong with that. You’re human.

In Family Gatherings, Stronger Ones Carry the Load

But, as you know, it’s also true that you may be a little more predictable. Your emotions may be a little more reliable. And you may be a little more skilled at managing them. These loved ones of yours probably do the very best they can. And they want meaning and love just like you do.

Of course, this isn’t news to you. You know all about all this, because these are your family members. You’ve been there…and done that. Still, it doesn’t hurt to get a little encouragement from others who also understand your situation. Sharing the holidays with depressed family members can be challenging at best…and sometimes downright traumatic for everyone.

Holidays Can Breed Crisis

Caleb was a young man in his twenties, who had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder when he was a young teenager. He’d had bouts in psych hospitals. He’d also had bouts in jail. And bouts in rehabs. By this point in time, his confidence in himself was pretty much shot.

He had such a gifted personality… you couldn’t sit in the room with him and not laugh your head off at his incredible humor. When he was good, he was your favorite person in the world.

But far too often, he was sick. Nosediving into depression and crippling anxiety. You could tell when his fun self was transitioning to his tormented self. And that could happen at any time. Sometimes there was a trigger that set him off. Other times it just happened with no warning.

Holidays were tough for him. His hopes were high and his anxiety that he’d fall apart were higher. You probably already can guess that the anxiety can lead to a panic attack.

So it was Thanksgiving, and the memories and interactions got to be too much and he left. Just walked out. He walked to a bridge in his community. He sat on the bridge and watched the traffic underneath, contemplating what he was going to do.

Thankfully, his family drove up soon enough. They’d been looking. And they held him…reassured him…and he agreed to get in the car and go home.

That Thanksgiving wasn’t a flawless Christmas card experience for the family…but isn’t it all about the people you love anyway? The family’s memory of that Thanksgiving was about safely returning home with him.

Depressed People Have So Much to Bear

Cherri was 16. She had been depressed so long she couldn’t remember what “happy” was like. She looked mad and sullen to those around her. But it wasn’t that. She was so numb. So silent. So hopeless. So paralyzed.

She thought about death. About relief. She had self-medicated with various substances in the past then spent 18 months in rehab. After she came home, she was white knuckling sobriety, but was still miserable.

Then her grandmother died a week before Christmas. She’d been so close to her. At times it seemed Grandma was the only one who understood her. At least it felt that way. Cherri couldn’t bear the pain.

The day of the funeral she ran away. She just couldn’t face everyone. She needed to be alone with her memories of Grandma as she knew her.

When the family arrived at the funeral home, they mumbled among themselves about Cherri’s selfishness to turn all the attention to herself. In their own pain and loss, they didn’t really realize it wasn’t about Cherri being selfish.

It was that she was so sensitive, and she could feel the feelings of the people around her. And she wanted to protect her private feelings about her grandma.

When the family returned home after the funeral, Cherri was alone in her room…looking at pictures of Grandma with the family.

People with Depression, Anxiety, Bipolar Disorder, and PTSD Need Extra Support This Time of Year

Holidays are complicated. The next few Christmases for Cherri may be tumultuous, too. That’s the way it goes. Everyone grieves in their own way.

For those of us who love vulnerable hearts who themselves suffer from anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder.…PTSD… may we be patient with our families, and with ourselves.

And accept life at this time of year as it happens.

Because it’s all about love … after all.

If you have a family member who is suffering, where treatment hasn’t helped, please call us. We’d love to help you and help your family. That’s what we do. We offer advanced treatment options, like IV ketamine treatment and TMS. We offer hope.

May your holidays be warm and heartfelt, and may you feel loved by those around you …

To the emerging of your best self,

Lori Calabrese, M.D.

December 4, 2017
Reaching Out to Sad Dads: Can Men Suffer Postpartum Depression, Too?

Paternal Postpartum Depression

In the last ten years, we’ve heard more and more about postpartum depression. Celebrities like Brooke Shields, Drew Barrymore, and Gwyneth Paltrow have stepped up to speak out about their own struggles with it.

But, as much as we talk about postpartum depression in mothers, very little is mentioned about the same illness in fathers. Can men suffer postpartum depression, too?

Dads fall prey to the pain, shame, and isolation of this illness only slightly less than moms. How great it would be if some celebrity fathers would grab the mic and talk about their own depression, wouldn’t it?

As tough as it is for moms to admit they have any feelings other than the blissful joy they expected after the birth of their babies, it’s probably tougher for men. But, when you stop to think about the massive adjustments men go through with the birth of a child, it might not be so surprising.

The overwhelming sense of responsibility, sleep deprivation, difficulty in soothing a baby who continues to cry … all are familiar to mothers, but can be just as suffocating to fathers. And as lack of sleep continues to interfere with normal functioning, shame, darkness, dread…and despair replace the joy and elation of a new baby.

Can Men Suffer Postpartum Depression?

When a parent can’t feel affection, whether it’s dad or mom, that parent can be bombarded by self-critical judgment that she – or he – is a bad parent, not cut out for parenting … and with fear of ruining their child and a host of other fears.

Society has believed that postpartum depression was the result of hormonal changes in the mother after giving birth. And that since the father doesn’t give birth, he can’t possibly be afflicted with the same type of condition.

But it turns out it’s not quite that simple. About 12 percent of women experience postpartum depression after the birth of a child, and somewhere between 7-10% of men do, also. A study at the University of Southern California found that depression in men following the birth of a baby seemed to be linked to reduced testosterone levels. To make it more complicated, they found that higher testosterone levels in men seemed to protect them from depression, but sadly, it seemed to correlate to more depression in their wives.

One reason may be that testosterone gives a big boost for hunting venison and feeding the family, but is not as helpful with sensitivity to the feelings and needs of wife and children. Testosterone may even interfere with husband-wife and father-child relationships on some level.

Testosterone’s More Useful for Conquering Dragons than for Nurturing Relationships

And here’s another tidbit about these dads. One more study, published in the American Journal of Human Biology, discovered that men who have children have lower testosterone than those who don’t.

Plus, those whose testosterone dropped when the baby was born seemed to also be more tuned in to their infant’s cues, and show more affectionate attention to them… and cuddle more.

So, men whose testosterone drops when a child is born, tend to be more sensitive to their wives or partners, also. And in these close relationships, researchers found that if one spouse’s hormones drop, the other spouse’s often do, too. Researchers didn’t understand why, but speculated there was a sort of interdependence between the couple that translated into these changes.

Fathers Get Depressed, Too

So back to postpartum depression. The fact is that women aren’t the only ones who have hormonal fluctuations with pregnancy and after childbirth. For some men, being in a relationship that’s producing a child, combined with sleep deprivation, tips the scale on hormone balances, anxiety, and feeling overwhelmed.

And just like their wives sometimes do, men suffer from the negative self-talk that accompanies these negative feelings and fears. And, it’s not enough that they trudge through the exhaustion, anxieties, and overload of fatherhood. The shame is just cruel.

Shame creeps in telling them they’re not cut out to be fathers… Of course, it’s a lie. But it sounds true to their impaired thinking.

In the vast majority of cases, these guys turn out to be wonderful dads and husbands. They just need treatment and rest to restore and find the energy to care for, protect, and enjoy their families..

So… can men suffer postpartum depression…? Apparently they can.

What To Do About Paternal Postpartum Depression…?

So what can men with paternal postpartum depression do?

Seek treatment.

I’ll say it again. You can seek treatment.

The combination of the major life changes, added responsibility, money worries, and sleep deprivation create a huge obstacle to conquer by yourself.

Your manhood may tell you to not be “vulnerable.” That you must be strong and not “cave.” But, to get better, enjoy your new baby and your wife, you need a little help.

Dads aren’t likely to get better as long as they continue to rehearse their terrible self-criticisms over and over in their minds. Or ferment those thoughts through sleepless nights. But anxiety can be hard to control singlehandedly.

In many cases, an antidepressant can be very helpful, as well as talk therapy. Learning how to cut yourself some slack. Talking with your wife about how you really feel. Letting down your guard.

Still, antidepressants help only roughly two-thirds of depressed people. But if antidepressants don’t help, don’t give up.

Ketamine treatment rapidly and robustly restores you to your real self. That’s been true in 75-80% of cases, and it’s highly likely it will help you, too.

And I mean it not only helps you feel less terrible. It doesn’t just take the edge off the shame…

But rather, it helps you feel alive again. So alive you feel your love for your wife and child. You truly enjoy them again. And that helps you become the best dad and husband you you can be.

There’s no place for shame in parenting. To your child, you’re a hero. Let us help you enjoy it.

You’re going to feel good again. You’ll see.

To the strengthening of your best self,

Lori Calabrese, M.D.

October 30, 2017

Category: Depression

Articles about Depression by Lori Calabrese, MD | The Ketamine Blog

Causes

Treatment

Benefits of Ketamine Treatment

Another Devastating Crisis

Another Overwhelming Tragedy

Stress Takes Down the Best People

How Stress Brings Someone Like Heather to Her Knees

MIcroglia Unwittingly Launch a Destructive Attack

How to Stop the Damage?

When they blocked the neurons from signaling the microglia, the chronic stress the mice were subjected to did not affect their synapses in their prefrontal cortex so they did not become depressed.

Restoration through an Extraordinary Medicine

Innovative Psychiatry Offers Expertly Administered Ketamine Infusions

Can you say PHENOMENAL???

Let’s hear it for Ketamine Treatment and Oxford!!

A 400-Year-Old Chandelier in a 400-Year-Old Room

Well, this club became the Royal Society when members of the family of King Charles II got involved. When that happened, the revolutionary became the norm.

Luminaries in the Ketamine Adventure

Dr. Sanacora kicked off the conference with an overview of the literature and key studies that have explored ketamine’s mechanism of action in treating psychiatric disorders. It was brilliant!

Biologically to induce neuronal plasticity (we talked about this before), as a sort of lubricant to enhance psychotherapy, and to deliberately induce dissociation … which can be transformative for the patient.

Ketamine for Psychiatric Disorders – Global Conference! Stunning.

Someone recently mentioned to me that he predicts the excitement over ketamine will fade away.

Ketamine Can Make Antidepressants Work Better for Hospitalized Patients

This is the best, life-changing breakthrough for people who suffer with psychiatric mood disorders EVER.

Ketamine for Psychiatric Disorders like Substance Use Disorders

All in all, this conference gathering of great scientific minds, young researchers, and brilliant clinicians was a huge step forward for the needs of depressed and anxious people. A huge step forward for the use of ketamine in the treatment of psychiatric disorders.

There is hope. You can feel truly better.

So don’t judge your next treatment by the ones you’ve had before. This time, chances are, you’ll see a difference. And you’ll remember how to live again.

Ketamine’s Power Against Depression

Like the hero in an epic movie, ketamine treatment works in several brain areas at once to improve brain functioning. It triggers a cascade of actions that repair, restore order, and create peace once again.

And there’s more…

Ketamine, like a proverbial grade school hall monitor, quickly causes these G proteins to slide off those lipid rafts, get into place, and get back to work with their signal transmission job.

Genetic Tests

One of these tests checks a certain genetic biomarker that signals a person’s likelihood to respond to ketamine treatment. It’s a certain allele, which is one of two more forms of a gene that can arise on the chromosome for BDNF.

What Causes the Delay?

A team of researchers from Taiwan and the US has found evidence that ketamine’s antidepressant effects are related to the size of the dose given.

First Study to Explore Ketamine with Taiwanese Subjects

Ketamine: What’s dose got to do with it?

Size of Dose Determined Effectiveness

Questions That Need Answers

Or whether a higher dose than 0.5 is needed for those with the Met allele? Or a longer infusion? Maybe a longer series like 9 infusions instead of 6?

And we see people get better every day.

Serious Challenges for an Adolescent or Young Adult

Their first time to leave home, their first time to enter the workforce, their first time to be accountable to strangers on their own, while taking much harder classes than they’ve taken before.

Plus unlimited access to alcohol and illicit substances. Easy access to sex. And the responsibility to recognize within themselves signs of health changes…including mental health.

Going to College with Anxiety or Depression

You still need to devise a plan to help her maintain stability and go for help when the stability changes.

“My Son’s Resilient and a High Achiever. He’ll Be Fine.”

What’s the saying…? Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Learn about anxiety and depression just as you have learned about meningitis, pneumonia, and the flu.

Will Your Child Suffer Mental Health Symptoms in the Future?

Further, if kids have struggled through middle school and high school with social anxiety, that anxiety may spread to more areas of life through increased pressure and stress.

When To Educate Yourself and Your Kids about Mental Wellbeing

What if we started now, no matter what their age?

Teaching Your Child to Take Care of Her Mental Health

You teach your children about sex. You teach them about drugs. Teach them about mental health, as well.

Sometimes Giving Your Child “Room” Is Too Much Space

Way too often, these withdrawn teens feel like failures. And what may look like immaturity to parents and teachers may actually be psychiatric symptoms.

Psychiatric Symptoms in Teens

Their parents are blind-sided. Had no idea their daughter hadn’t been going to class. And they wonder why…?

Symptoms to Watch For

Your child just may be too depressed to get out of bed. He may not have the energy to face his life. In fact, he may be eating constantly…. Or forgetting to eat altogether.

But research pushed forward. Then, a small group tried an anesthesia medication on depressed patients and…

Eureka! They felt better. And a new era began.

Over 5000 Years to Crack the Depression Code

IV Ketamine is Depression’s BREAKTHROUGH

In addition to all this, ketamine also stops – erases – suicidal thoughts in 4 hours or less.

We’ve never had any treatment that could do that.

Ketamine’s Rapid Relief of Depression: It BLOCKS Neuronal Bursts in the Lateral Habenula (LHb)

The Problem with Bursting Cells

Ketamine’s Rapid and Robust Antidepressant Effect

We’re finally getting down to what really works. It’s about time.

We see 80% success in treatment-resistant mood disorders. And 80% is the best result seen from any treatment known today.

Depression’s the Worst!

Disability Plagues Depressed People

Brain Circuit Study about Depression

Anhedonia vs. Anxiety

You can see that though all four groups were diagnosed with depression, that the two groups of subtypes had almost opposite symptoms.

4 Subtypes of Depression

Depression Subtypes Treated with TMS