Lively Town of Interesting People

Along the Connecticut River – the eastern border of Vermont – lies a bustling community of nearly 12,000 people called Brattleboro. This comparatively small town is home to festivals, celebrations, fun events, and delicious food fairs practically year round.

What this community lacks in population, it makes up for in talent, fun, and entertainment.

Home of the Brattleboro Brewers Festival in May, such small craft breweries as Magic Hat and Wormtown breweries sell their wares to happy people alongside Samuel Adams and Angry Orchard.

If you’re fortunate enough to visit Brattleboro, don’t miss the Creamery Covered Bridge… an expansion bridge built in 1879. They built it with spruce lumber and it spans 80ft. The covered bridge will make you think you’re living in the book, Bridges of Madison County.

There is no scenery in the world that can compete with Vermont’s so save a day for hiking Retreat Trails.  After a day in the Green Mountain National Forest, you’ll be rejuvenated by the beauty and fragrances along 9 miles of hiking paths. Some of the trails still bear the names from 175 years ago. Tthe patients and staff of the “Vermont Asylum” enjoyed the beauty of their daily walks here.

Brattleboro Retreat

As colorful and eery as that may sound, the hospital still operates in the same location under the name of Brattleboro Retreat with treatments and therapy up to date for the 21st century.

Which is an important subject.  Because just as residents of the Brattleboro (spelled Brattleborough back in the 1850s) area were sometimes in need of psychiatric care, so is the case now, if not more so.

That long ago, severe anxiety, depression, or bipolar disorder baffled doctors. And these suffering people were admitted to asylums… because solutions were few and far between.

Thankfully, we’ve come a long way in neuroscience since then. Some patients receive real help from modern medicines.  Some receive very little. And even some of those not helped by modern antidepressants receive help from electroconvulsive therapy. As unsettling as this may sound, that procedure is far advanced from its early days of use.  Still, only some receive help with this procedure. And many of them experience troubling side effects, like memory loss, for example.

Better Treatments for a New Century

But we now have a new treatment with no lasting side effects like these others. And it’s effective in far more than either of these others.

The key to getting the most out of it is in the expertise of administration by an experienced psychiatrist who recognizes and understands psychiatric symptoms.

This emerging treatment is changing the story for countless people who suffer from psychiatric disorders like depression, panic attacks, social anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD, OCD, and suicidal thoughts.

Ketamine treatment near Brattleboro VT offers a paradigm shift in Psychiatric Treatment

After a single series of 6-9 infusions over 2-3 weeks, many go back to their lives in remission. And they enjoy their lives.  Lethargy, fatigue, body aches, and fear don’t hold them back anymore.

They quickly begin to enjoy their jobs and their hobbies and have the initiative to tackle projects they’ve put off for years. Their relations begin to grow again…because they feel so much better.

The medicine that yields such extraordinary results in these patients is IV ketamine treatment.

And the only way to get lasting benefits for psychiatric disorders is to receive it by a series of IV infusions given over a short period of time, such as 2-3 weeks. The number of infusions, the rate, and the dose, is carefully determined by the psychiatrist.

You may hear people say they’ve “tried” ketamine treatment, but if you go deeper with them, you’ll hear that it was an infusion every month or two. This “one-off” approach to ketamine treatment for psychiatric disorders is as ineffective as feeding a horse half a cup a day, every week or two. Such a practice would put your horse in serious danger.

But when administered properly, with psychiatric expertise, for the vast majority of patients it’s life-changing. Robust. Fast. Extraordinary.

And because its effects are so rapid, so amazing, so restorative, everyone who’s been suffering wants it.

And why not?  Who wouldn’t want the chance to get their lives and relationships back on track, to enjoy life again, and to have the energy to do things they need to do?

Unfortunately, the huge demand has drawn those who want to benefit from the investment opportunity.

Ketamine Treatment Near Brattleboro VT

That’s not to say that everyone who offers ketamine treatment is after the profits. But as so many rush to open a clinic, like miners rushed to California during the gold rush, there are risks that are inherent in this approach. You need to understand what they are, and why.

The trouble with anesthesiologists providing a psychiatric treatment:

Because neuroscientists originally designed ketamine to work as an anesthesia medicine. Since anesthesiologists have been safely providing it in surgical settings for 50 years, these talented doctors probably consider it’s “their” medicine. 

No one has the deep expertise anesthesiologist or anesthetists have for using ketamine to put a patient asleep and keep him asleep.

But the use of ketamine as a psychiatric medicine to treat severe psychiatric disorders is a different animal altogether.

You’re probably at least casually familiar with nitroglycerin. It’s used in multiple scenarios, too.  It can relieve chest pain or lower blood pressure in tiny doses, and it can blow up a bridge in larger amounts. But the guy who uses it to blow up a bridge is not qualified to use it to treat a heart attack.

These are horses of two very different colors.

Severe psychiatric disorders are unpredictable in their symptoms. An individual who suffers the ravages of a severe disorder for years without relief may react unexpectedly to changes in their delicate brain systems or in their environment. This can impose experiences on the sufferer that can’t be foreseen and requires instant and expert action.

During infusions of ketamine, global changes are taking place in the brain’s structures, and the physician overseeing the treatment should be deeply experienced in treating psychiatric emergencies as well as adjusting the dose and rate of ketamine to fit the patient’s needs.

Two MORE horses…two MORE colors.

Anesthesiologists are perfectly suited for providing ketamine for anesthesia and for pain. We applaud them for offering this valuable medical care for those who need it.

An anesthesiologist would not be comfortable if a psychiatrist stepped into the operating theater, and took over the anesthesia administration. He would be justified to feel concern for that patient’s safety.

Psychiatrists don’t have the background to safely administer anesthesia. Their training didn’t equip them to respond to an emergency situation while the patient is sedated. For these reasons and more, they aren’t equipped to do this specialized procedure.

For similar reasons, anesthesiologists are not trained for psychiatric responses in an awake psychiatric patient. Especially when she’s experiencing potentially traumatic brain changes during an infusion.

However, for individuals in Brattleboro, ketamine treatment expertly administered is available for those who want to gain the full benefit IV ketamine treatment provides.

Seasoned, psychiatric expertise makes all the difference in the quality of the infusion and the lasting power of the treatment.

A psychiatrist must administer ketamine with expertise and deep experience. It’s not like riding a bike. This is a precision-centered skill based on psychiatric responses. And that’s done by a psychiatrist highly-skilled in adjusting dosages and rates. Whose goal is to provide the most robust benefit for each specific patient. And when that happens… well, the patient is the winner. Because, this way,  the patient can receive the full amplitude of the infusion, and the restored, functioning mind to go with it. 

Because, as we all know, one size never fits all. And especially when it comes to the brain.

Ketamine treatment near Brattleboro VT is provided with the most advanced and sophisticated infusion pump and monitoring equipment. It ensures precise control over dosage and rate. Only the most skilled psychiatrists excel at these adjustments.

There’s a very special psychiatrist just an hour and some change down I-91 who provides optimum ketamine treatment experiences, for the most robust and lasting results.

Lori Calabrese, M.D., at Innovative Psychiatry in South Windsor, CT, is Hopkins- and Harvard- educated and Mass General- trained. She specializes in individualized treatment for severely ill patients. Her goal for each patient is to help them reach remission.

She evaluates and works with you. She skillfully decides on the most effective treatment, at the most effective dose for you. Her practice uses state-of-the-art infusion and monitoring equipment.  And she safely helps you rediscover the best you, you can be.

She operates a full-service psychiatry practice and has the best options for you at her disposal.

A kind, compassionate, and insightful psychiatrist, highly-skilled in delivering ketamine treatment expertly. Dr. Calabrese lives and works to see you well. Content. Fulfilled.

If you’d like more information about IV ketamine treatment for psychiatric disorders, or about Dr. Calabrese, contact us at 860.648.9755 or email info@loricalabresemd.com