If you’re considering intravenous (IV) ketamine therapy for anxiety or depression and are wondering about the mental health benefits, you’re not alone. It’s normal to explore the positives of any treatment, and ketamine therapy is no exception. As it turns out, there are lots of pluses!
Below, Dr. Hadi Estakhri and our team at Allied Psychiatry & Mental Health in Newport Beach, California, explain six mental health benefits of ketamine.
While conventional antidepressant medication can take weeks to work, ketamine speeds up that timeline and often provides relief within hours or days. This can be a beacon of hope for anyone battling treatment-resistant depression or those at risk of suicide from unmanaged depression.
Note: If you’re in a mental health crisis, call 988 (the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline) or head to your nearest emergency room.
Ketamine doesn’t just help with depression. It can also help alleviate symptoms of anxiety disorders, including generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and social anxiety.
When you take ketamine for anxiety, it modulates activity in your brain’s glutamate system. What does this mean? Ketamine therapy can help reduce overactivity in regions of your brain associated with fear and worry.
PTSD — one of the many types of anxiety — also responds well to ketamine therapy. Ketamine therapy can help reset your brain’s response to trauma. It helps put a damper on intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, and hypervigilance by rewiring your neural connections.
The best part? It works fast. According to a 2024 study, individuals with PTSD who received ketamine therapy saw significant improvement within 24 hours after their first IV infusion and at the end of the four-week study.
Ketamine isn’t a stand-alone treatment for PTSD, though. It pairs well with therapy. In fact, ketamine can help you learn to process your trauma more effectively in your therapy sessions by rewiring those neural connections.
Chronic pain often coexists (in a vicious circle) with mental health conditions like depression and anxiety. Chronic pain can make depression and anxiety symptoms worse, and depression and anxiety can exacerbate chronic pain.
Ketamine therapy helps you get out of this cycle because it addresses both parts of the problem. It has the dual ability to reduce pain and improve mood, providing comprehensive relief and breaking the cycle of pain and depression/anxiety.
The speed at which ketamine works is perhaps its greatest benefit. Ketamine IV infusions or nasal sprays work faster than traditional anxiety or depression medication. For people who’ve been suffering with their symptoms for weeks (or even months), ketamine can be a literal lifesaver.
Many people start to see an improvement within hours (or in some cases, minutes), and that can make all the difference for your mental health.
When ketamine takes the edge off of your symptoms — whether that’s anxiety or depression — you might feel you have breathing room for other lifestyle changes that support your mental health.
These changes include finding the energy to make a nourishing meal, exercising (even just a slow walk around the block), or enjoying a hobby you love (like reading).
Ketamine isn’t right for everyone or every condition, which is why Dr. Estakhri starts with a consultation. During your first appointment, he reviews your family and personal medical history, your mental health history, your symptoms, and contraindications for ketamine.
If Dr. Eskahri determines ketamine is right for you, he explains your options. Here at Allied Psychiatry & Mental Health, our team offers ketamine in two formats: through IV infusion or a nasal spray called Spravato®.
To learn more about ketamine or find out if this therapy is right for you, schedule a consultation with Dr. Estakhri today by calling our office at 949-945-0927, or book an appointment online anytime.
