Your safety is our primary concern. Our goal is to facilitate your healing. Ketamine Assisted Therapy means that your ketamine infusion will be administered in collaboration with your Psychiatrist or Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. We collaborate closely with your own mental health provider and require you to have one throughout treatment. From our perspective, collaboration is critical.
Like so many drugs, Ketamine has also been abused. It has been used as a the “party-drug” called Special-K.
The dosage given during a pure therapeutic Ketamine infusion is dependent on the person, but our starting point of 0.5mg/kg, given slowly over 40-60 minutes, is low in comparison to a “party-dose”. The party drug version is a far greater dose (sometimes 20 times as much) and given all at once. It is also uncontrolled and could be mixed with other drugs.
Ketamine does not slow down vital bodily functions such as respiration rate. Ketamine can increase blood pressure and heart rate for some patients, but this is a very temporary and transient effect. We feel that the overall safety of a ketamine infusion is dependent upon the clinical experience of the provider that you are with. There are many clinics around the country operated by anesthesia providers and emergency physicians because of their clinical experience with Ketamine. Psychiatric specialists operate ketamine clinics as well. Look for comprehensive centers, like Altasano, that place a priority on your bodily health and as well as your mental well-being, before, during and after your infusion treatment.
Altasano follows the APA recommendations of:
- Standard operating procedures based on the best evidence available;
- Treatment plans that outline clear steps for screening and obtaining informed consent;
- Assessment of a patient’s physical and mental status before, during, and after infusions;
- Policies and procedures for managing any problems during or after treatment.
- With permission, collect data on every patient who receives ketamine treatment for mood disorders to help provide outcome data, both in the short-term and the long run.
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