Pros And Cons Of Ketamine For Anxiety Relief
Anxiety is difficult to live and deal with. There are numerous treatments available, ranging from therapy to medications. However, no single treatment works perfectly for every person. Most patients have to go through a bit of a trial-and-error period in which they try various medications and approaches to see what works best. So, what if you've tried several conventional medications for anxiety with few results? Then you may want to try ketamine, a newer anxiety treatment that tends to work well when other anxiety treatments have failed. Here are some pros and cons of using ketamine to treat anxiety.
Pro: It's a one-time or several-time treatment.
Ketamine treatment is not a medication you need to take every day or a kind of therapy you have to commit to weekly. Instead, it is an IV treatment you undergo in a doctor's office. Some people have just one ketamine infusion and find that their anxiety level plummets afterward. Other people need two or three treatments, but few need more than this. As such, ketamine therapy is a time-efficient treatment option.
Con: Ketamine treatment for anxiety is relatively new.
Ketamine has been used for anesthesia and pain relief purposes for many years, so its safety is pretty well established. However, its use as an anxiety treatment is much newer, so scientists are still learning about the way it works.
Pro: Ketamine treatment can be used for many different anxiety disorders.
There are a lot of specific disorders that fall under the anxiety umbrella. Panic disorder, PTSD, general anxiety disorder, and simple phobias are a few of them. Sometimes, it's hard to pin down exactly which one of these disorders someone has. But if your diagnosis is not entirely accurate, that doesn't really matter for ketamine treatment. It works for a wide range of anxiety disorders and symptoms.
Con: Ketamine treatment may not be covered by insurance.
Since this is a newer and less-conventional treatment for anxiety, not all health insurance plans cover it quite yet. You may have to pay for ketamine treatment out-of-pocket. There is often the option of having your doctor petition your insurer to cover it, but they may or may not be successful in doing so.
Using ketamine for anxiety relief is often a wise choice, especially if other anxiety treatments have failed. While the treatment is newer and can be expensive, ketamine itself has been used for a long time and has helped many people.
To learn more about using ketamine for depression, contact a health care clinic in your area