Many women experience symptoms of postpartum depression but most go untreated after they are diagnosed. At Transcend we see this as an unacceptable issue. Until recently there have not been very many effective treatment options for this condition. We utilize a new modality (Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy) to help provide rapid relief in postpartum depression symptoms and to deepen the therapy process that can help one to start feeling better again.
The arrival of a new baby can bring many emotions, including anxiety and fear. While it is normal to experience the “baby blues” for a few weeks after childbirth, a more serious, long-lasting condition, known as postpartum depression, can cause you to feel depressed, overwhelmed, and unable to bond with your baby.
Transcend offers ketamine for postpartum depression, a therapy treatment for new mothers. Our ketamine infusion therapy, coupled with the treatment provided by our licensed therapists, can help you manage your postpartum depression symptoms so you can feel like yourself again and bond with your baby.
Postpartum depression is a mood disorder that affects approximately 12.5% of women in the United States. Postpartum depression symptoms appear days or weeks after childbirth and can persist for weeks, months, or years if left untreated.
Symptoms of postpartum depression include:
In rare cases, a related condition called postpartum psychosis can emerge, a severe mood disorder that can cause hallucinations and paranoia, obsessive thoughts, and cause you to harm yourself or your baby.
Although you may expect to feel tired or anxious for a few weeks after a new baby arrives, you may need to seek help for postpartum depression if you notice the following. It is time to seek treatment if your symptoms:
Ketamine-assisted therapy is a treatment option that uses ketamine, a medication most known for its use medically as an anesthetic and pain mediation to help balance neurotransmitter deficits that cause mood problems.
At Transcend, we offer IV ketamine infusion therapy and also provide you with a licensed psychotherapist to further aid your recovery.
Ketamine therapy is especially helpful in treating postpartum depression because most antidepressant medications are not considered safe for nursing mothers. These selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have a wide range of adverse side effects and can take weeks or months to become effective.
Ketamine, however, is a fast-acting medication with a high success rate and virtually no adverse side effects when taken at the appropriate dose under qualified supervision. Additionally, breastfeeding mothers can feed their baby in as little as 12 hours after a treatment session.
As a result of ketamine-assisted therapy, most clients experience fewer negative thoughts, less anxious feelings, and experience a new found peace of mind.
It is understandably a big decision to consider a treatment option like Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy. We want to make sure you feel fully informed and have all your questions about this treatment answered before signing up. Please feel free to call us to set up a consult with one of our nurses. We are here to discuss any questions you may have.
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Your peace of mind is worth the time.
Ketamine Infusion Therapy/Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy is ideal for people suffering from treatment resistant depression, anxiety, suicidal ideations, OCD, PTSD and chronic pain conditions with no relief from other medications or therapeutic interventions.
Ketamine is a very short acting medication. Generally speaking, any side effect experienced from Ketamine will be short-term and will subside after the infusion has stopped. It can be normal to have slight increases in blood pressure and heart rate during an infusion. A small percentage of patients do experience some nausea during or right after the infusion. Nausea, elevated blood pressure and heart rate are easily managed through IV medications during the session should these arise. Most patients who do not eat for three hours prior to the session, and keep their eyes closed or use eyeshades during the session, will not experience any nausea.
In high doses and/or with very frequent administration Ketamine can be irritating to the bladder. For the purposes of facilitating KAP, doses of ketamine are low and most patients will only do one or two sessions per week. In this dosing and frequency there is an extremely low risk of developing bladder irritation caused by the administration of Ketamine. We have never had a patient develop bladder issues from this treatment at our clinic.
During your medical intake, we will determine if you need to alter your medication regimen prior to treatment. There are only a few medications that should be altered prior to initiating treatment. For instance, stimulant medications, benzodiazepines, and medications like Lamictal may need to be held or adjusted prior to treatment.
We request that you don't eat a meal within 3 hours of the start of your appointment time.
After receiving a ketamine infusion, it is normal to feel slightly tired or loopy for several hours. It would be unsafe to drive after a session so we do require that you arrange a family/friend to pick you up or utilize a taxi or other ride service.
It is best to provide time to fully process the therapeutic content that may have been worked through in the session. We encourage our clients to journal and integrate in the time following the session.
At Transcend, it is our goal to have this treatment be a highly transformative, short term intervention for you.
One of the reasons to undergo the KAP process with a therapist vs. receiving Ketamine infusion or injection-only is because most people are able to avoid needing maintenance treatment long-term with KAP. When symptom reduction has occurred through the chemical effects of ketamine only, there is often a need to re-administer ketamine every 20-30 days to keep symptoms at bay. With KAP, symptom reduction is more often secondary to therapeutic progress which does not dwindle in time, and therefore maintenance treatments are often not required.
The majority of our clients will reach sub-clinical levels of distress after an average of 6-10 sessions. Most of our clients will discharge from our care after these sessions and won't need any form of maintenance therapy. Some people do benefit from revisiting KAP intermittently throughout the year following the initial series as needed to continue therapeutic progress but this is not the most common treatment plan at Transcend.
For chronic pain treatment, it is more difficult to keep baseline pain levels down and flare-ups without maintenance infusions ongoing. The majority of patients with chronic pain will do sessions every 30-90 days to keep the baseline pain levels reduced.
You can expect to be at the clinic for approximately 2 hours. There are many factors that influence the length of the infusion but most patients will receive a 35-50 minute ketamine infusion. Your Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy trained therapist and a registered nurse will be by your side throughout your entire time during the infusion. Your therapist will be with you before to help set goals for the session, during for guidance and processing, and after for continued therapy, integration, and reflection.
Have another question? Don't hesitate to reach out to us.
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