Some military veterans on Long Island are turning to ketamine treatment to help manage symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Ketamine is a drug that produces a dissociative, dreamlike state. Researchers are studying its potential to help patients with PTSD process difficult experiences and develop healthier responses to emotional triggers.
Stacey Blume Frankel, a psychotherapist at Keta Medical Center in Garden City, said ketamine stimulates glutamate, a neurotransmitter involved in brain function and neuroplasticity, or the brain's ability to form new neural connections.
“Whether people have a transcending kind of spiritual experience or whether they just kind of feel floaty and relaxed, it doesn't even matter what happens in the chair in that altered state because the medicine is still working biologically with a surge of glutamate," Blume Frankel said. "So this is very different than traditional antidepressants.”
Frankel said the treatment may help patients become less reactive to triggers and develop healthier thought patterns.
“You've got the power to pause, to stop, to not be as reactive, to choose a new thought, choose a new emotion, and create a new neural pathway," she said. "So that's the magic of neuroplasticity: this creation of new neural pathways, that ability to pause and to embrace a healthier mindset.
At the Garden City clinic, ketamine is administered intravenously or through a nasal spray. Treatment sessions typically last about 45 minutes and are followed by a meeting with a trained therapist.
Ketamine is not FDA-approved specifically to treat PTSD, and its effectiveness for the condition remains under investigation.
