Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that can occur after someone has experienced or witnessed a traumatic event. In some cases, indirect exposure to a traumatic event can also trigger post-traumatic stress disorder. Although PTSD is commonly associated with war veterans, it can affect anyone.
What are the symptoms of PTSD?
There are four categories of PTSD symptoms, including:
- Intrusion: These are unwelcome and often disturbing thoughts that enter into a person’s mind. These can be flashbacks, nightmares, or distressing visual imagery related to the traumatic event.
- Avoidance: A person with PTSD may try to avoid situations or people they associate with their trauma. This avoidance includes anything from social media posts about a significant event in a military veteran’s life to a specific location where a person experienced a traumatic event.
- Changes in mood and cognition: A person with PTSD may have trouble recalling the traumatic event and may hold distorted beliefs about themselves or others, wrongly blame themselves, and experience ongoing fear. This is also usually accompanied by changes in mood, such as anxiety or depression.
- Changes in Reactivity: These symptoms refer to how someone responds to their environment and can include angry outbursts, reckless behavior, irritability, extreme suspiciousness, and problems with concentration or sleeping.
It is important to note that PTSD symptoms may vary among individuals. If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with PTSD, schedule a consultation with your Hoosier Ketamine providers, Kerri Pritchard & Josh Retz, to evaluate if ketamine therapy is right for you.
How is PTSD treated at Hoosier Ketamine?
Our Hoosier Ketamine providers work together with mental health professionals to create a customized plan that treats the whole person and is designed to help individuals become happier and healthier. Since our infusions are intended to work as a supplement to other mental health treatments, we ask that all our patients be under the care of a licensed mental health provider.
Like depression, anxiety disorders (including PTSD) are found to respond well to the production of glutamate, which helps to repair damaged brain connections to create positive thoughts and behaviors. During your treatment, our Hoosier Ketamine providers will administer a customized dose of ketamine to stimulate the production of glutamate and ease symptoms of PTSD. Initial treatment typically consists of six infusions administered over the course of 2-3 weeks. After completing the first series of infusions, some people can remain symptom-free for several months. Follow-up maintenance infusions are individualized to the patient and scheduled as needed.
