ECT (Electroconvulsive Therapy) Vs Ketamine Treatment

The world is an entirely different place when you are suffering from clinical depression. It’s darker than any description you’ll get from a depressed person.

If you think about how clinical depression is treated in our country, the journey can seem as dark as depression itself.

Typically, someone who is depressed will suffer for a period of time before either being coerced or deciding to go see a physician. That doctor will prescribe an antidepressant which can take weeks to reach a therapeutic dose. The patient now begins a march of multiple monthly visits to get the dose adjusted, try another antidepressant med and so on. Maybe he or she will get referred to a psychiatrist initially; maybe that referral will come later. The person can go from months to years suffering without any symptom relief.

After years of struggling and possibly being labeled as having “treatment-resistant” depression, a physician may recommend ECT.

Most people have an idea in their head that the world of mental health abandoned ECT years ago, but that’s simply not the case. Some local psych hospitals still do high numbers of ECT cases a week. This intervention has not gone away at all.

But is there an alternative treatment for depression that seems to be resistant to traditional antidepressant medication? Absolutely!

An Alternative ECT

Ketamine infusion therapy has shown some significant promise in helping people with significant depression. Many patients begin to experience symptom alleviation after the very first treatment.

The process of getting ketamine treatment is simple. On the day of your treatment, you simply come to the clinic and the medical staff there will insert an IV bag where you will receive a low dose of Ketamine. You can sit and listen to music, watch TV, etc. The process takes a few hours, but the entire process is simple and easy to undergo.

The Side Effects Of ECT

Part of the reason many people think that the behavioral health community has abandoned ECT is because of the side effects. Although the procedure is safer now than in years past since it is done under general anesthesia, some of the reported or observed side effects of electroconvulsive therapy can include:

• Cognitive impairment
• Confusion
• Nausea
• Mild to significant memory impairment
• Headaches
• Jaw pain
• Muscle ache
• Negative side effects of the anesthesia

The majority of patients who undergo Ketamine infusion therapy experience no significant side effects during IV therapy; however, the most common side effects include:

• Slight nausea
• Dizziness
• Slight fatigue or sleepiness

There are those in the medical community that feel strongly that ECT should never be used as a treatment intervention simply because the process itself causes what they consider to be brain damage by sending electrical shocks through the brain to induce intense seizures or convulsions.

People suffering from depression simply want to feel better. After years of pain, nearly any alternative can begin to look good, but when you base treatment alternatives on side effects alone, ketamine infusion therapy offers relief with fewer side effects. 

Ketamine Offers Hope For Depression

The Georgia Ketamine Clinic provides hope for people suffering from treatment-resistant or difficult to treat depression. Our patients experience lasting results.
The first clinical study of ketamine used to treat depression was published 15 years ago. Since then, Ketamine infusion therapy has been shown to be highly effective in the treatment of depression and anxiety disorders.

We are offering a cutting edge treatment for symptoms of persistent sadness and hopelessness. Ketamine has been shown to improve mood, outlook, and activities of daily living where traditional treatment approaches have fallen short. Under patient-specific treatment protocols, patients can often feel a markedly positive response often times after the first treatment.

Isn’t it time you experienced some relief?