Connecticut Psychiatrist Helps Patients Achieve Full Remission with IV Ketamine Treatment near Waterbury, CT: Lori Calabrese, M.D.
In 1933 a company called the Waterbury Clock Company manufactured the Mickey Mouse watch. Only five years Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse…was it too soon? Was the cartoon sensation popular enough to support a watch in 1933, in the middle of The Great Depression? It was a new idea, and a great risk at a time when there wasn’t much money to spend. But it worked. The company sold 11,000 watches the first day. And the revenue saved the Waterbury Clock Company from certain bankruptcy.
…There’s another new commotion on the scene…this time it’s not a cartoon or watch, but the most effective treatment for depression psychiatry has ever seen. Ketamine treatment near Waterbury, CT, by Lori Calabrese, M.D. More about that in a bit.
You probably know that Waterbury Clock Company was located in Waterbury, CT. First settled in 1674, Waterbury is a town deeply rooted in the history of the New World and now boasts a population of 110,366. As the 10th largest city in the New York City Metropolitan area, Waterbury holds its own.
Waterbury is known as Brass City, and for the first half of the 1900’s, was the highest producer of brassware in the U.S. It’s also been a leading maker of watches and clocks. What a convenience for clock makers to have access to all that brass!
But the bigger story is that you can live in a bustling and strong city like Waterbury, but find it impossible to receive effective treatment for psychiatric disorders.
Take bipolar disorder for example, and consider that nearly 3% of the adult population in the US suffers from it, and 0.75% of all US children do, too.
What’s more, 82% of those with bipolar disorder have severe impairment. Severe symptoms. But treatment that works and empowers you to live your life…?
Hard to find for at least 1/3 of these people.
Picture Yourself Unable to Find Treatment that Would Free You to Live Your Life as You Choose
Why do you suppose it’s so hard for children, teens, and adults alike, to find an effective treatment for their disorder?
The answer lies in the general problem of treating mood and anxiety disorders. Whether we’re referring to depression, panic disorder, social anxiety, or bipolar disorder… Add to that OCD, PTSD, addiction… and the worst — suicidal thinking that can just seep in.
The general problem is in finding medicines that really help you feel better. Feel well.
So many who suffer with mood disorders grow weary of taking pills day after day month after month…year in and year out…without feeling any better.
And until the last several years there just wasn’t an alternative.
If you’re severely ill, and years of taking meds that don’t help make you lose hope and feel disheartened, you’re likely to throw those pills away eventually.
In fact, you’re likely to isolate yourself from help, because as far as you can tell, that stuff doesn’t help anyway.
But There’s Good News
As discouraging as all that is, things have changed. Neuroscience research has uncovered amazing news about ketamine treatment in the last several years. It began quietly, at the beginning of the 21st century, and slowly gained traction. And in the last several years, ketamine treatment has become broadly used by psychiatrists and in pop-up clinics across the US.
People on the street abuse ketamine because of its dissociative properties. They take large — even massive — doses, because once they start they don’t want to stop. They have proven that https://www.loricalabresemd.com/blog/get-high-and-kick-depression/this abuse of the drug is not only dangerous, but damaging to the user’s bladder. Severely and irreparably damaging.
But, ketamine used in the tiny doses required for anesthesia, and even smaller doses needed to treat mood disorders, continues to show its safety. And remarkable effectiveness.
But a problem has emerged. Psychiatry has never seen a medicine so quickly effective across a wide gamut of disorders. Depression disappears, anxiety and panic melt away, social anxiety dissolves like a mist in the sun. Symptoms of PTSD are drastically reduced. Addiction releases its hold…
Of course these changes don’t happen in 100% of patients who receive ketamine treatment. There are some who aren’t helped. Of course there are. But they do happen in most. And that’s what’s pretty remarkable.
Suicidal Thinking Can Be Erased by a Different but Powerful Action
Add to all those benefits the effects ketamine has on suicidal thinking. Ketamine works to end those suicidal thoughts by a completely different action than its antidepressant properties. So, even someone who is unable to benefit from its antidepressant benefits, may still find their suicidal thoughts are erased. Gone. Within four hours…and likely within one.
So What’s the Problem? If Ketamine Is So Remarkably Effective?
Well, here it is. Anytime news gets out that a new product is helping lots of people, what happens? Everybody and his brother opens up shop to sell it.
We don’t like to think about a medical treatment being for sale. But that’s what’s happened. People with medical licenses have decided this is an opportunity to land on Sweet Street.
Because ketamine has been FDA-approved for half a century for anesthesia, any doctor…or any prescriber… can put it to use. And do so in a bare bones setting that allows them to rake in profits. This isn’t fair to you, but it’s what’s happening.
The Effective Means for Receiving Ketamine Infusions
So let’s talk about how ketamine SHOULD be administered.
While there are some physicians offering ketamine by IM injections, or “IM infusions?”, and even by nasal spray, ketamine is most effective when administered by IV.
The term “infusion” intuitively refers to the intravenous route. This is the only route that ensures you receive 100% of the medicine, so your physician knows precisely how much of the medicine is reaching your brain, where it’s needed.
There should be a sophisticated infusion pump, measuring to the hundredth of a mg, the amount you receive at any moment. Because of the way ketamine behaves during treatment, your physician should be well-versed at using ketamine for psychiatric conditions, and how to adjust the dose and rate to ensure optimum outcomes for you.
This is a very different process than ketamine to initiate anesthesia.
Too much of the medicine can result in an overwhelming experience for you…and too little may not be effective at all.
Your physician should be so familiar with ketamine’s effects during an infusion so that he/she can determine whether the dose should be adjusted higher or lower, and whether the rate should be slightly faster or slightly slower. And as the series of infusions advance forward, your doctor should know enough to recognize whether more infusions are needed beyond the original 6 planned.
If so, then a seventh, eighth, and maybe a ninth can be scheduled after the 6th infusion. All with the goal of helping you to reach remission, and to recover your life.
These judgments and evaluations are extremely important to the administration of this powerful medicine.
The majority of pop-up clinics, and even some of the psychiatrists offering this treatment, use a one-size-fits-all strategy… which basically translates to doing what everyone else is doing.
When a patient doesn’t reach remission, which happens often in these settings, they recommend an infusion every month, or every two months, or a frequent flyer plan where you pay every month and come get another infusion when you need it. But this isn’t necessary or even appropriate, and its safety is questionable.
If administered properly, ketamine treatment does a better job than that — in most people suffering from treatment-resistant depression or other mood disorders. There are exceptions. But far too many people are accepting sub-par treatments because of a lack of information and skill in the physician-providers.
However, it happens that a short drive down the road you can find a psychiatrist with the training, the experience, and the expertise, to help you receive the best possible outcomes with ketamine treatment for your depression.
Best Practices at a Best Psychiatry Practice – Innovative Psychiatry in South Windsor, CT
Lori Calabrese, M.D., at Innovative Psychiatry in South Windsor CT, provides expertly administered ketamine treatment in her full-service practice. She was educated at Wellesley and Johns Hopkins, and trained at Mass General, and also held faculty positions at Harvard and Yale. She’s a doctor’s doctor, a mentor among her peers, and has painstakingly developed her singular expertise with ketamine infusions in her burgeoning practice.
You’ll love her soft-spoken and nurturing “bedside manner” and you’ll find the inviting and comforting infusion room where you receive your infusions sets you at ease. You’re likely to find you feel relaxed and comfortable in this cozy space with its special recliner and blanket, as music softly wafts through the room.
By adhering closely to best practices, Dr. Calabrese has outstanding outcomes for even her most severely ill patients, and those who have come to believe they’re treatment-resistant discover they aren’t at all…when given the right medicine using the best method.
If you live in Waterbury CT ketamine treatment with the most promising outcomes is available to you a pleasant drive up I-84. If you’ve been suffering with a mood disorder and no other treatment has helped, you owe it to yourself to reach for your best opportunity to get better. https://www.loricalabresemd.com/blog/screen-a-ketamine-clinic/Don’t take chances. It’s your life and you can live it well.
For more information about Lori Calabrese, M.D. or ketamine treatment near Waterbury CT for psychiatric disorders, call or email Dr. Calabrese.