Chronic pain can affect a person’s quality of life in countless ways. It may make favorite pastimes too uncomfortable to enjoy anymore. Chronic pain can interfere with getting a restful night’s sleep. It can make you moody, irritable, and depressed. The one thing all chronic pain sufferers have in common is the need for solutions.
Ketamine therapy is being used to effectively relieve chronic pain — learn more about ketamine for chronic pain in this article from Quest Ketamine Therapies.
When Does Pain Become Chronic Pain?
Physical pain is part of life, unfortunately. We all have occasional aches and pains as well as more serious pain when we are injured, sick, or have surgery. Chronic pain is different, however. Chronic pain refers to recurring pain that has persisted for longer than 3 months. It usually comes from an ailment, condition, or old injury that cannot heal fully.
Three of the most common forms of chronic pain and its sources include:
- Chronic back pain is perhaps the most common form and it can be a result of anything from an old sports injury to degenerative disc disease or scoliosis.
- Chronic headaches include tension headaches (stress-related), eye strain headaches, migraines, and cluster headaches.
- Chronic joint pain from osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, repetitive motion injuries, and sports injuries.
- Chronic pain from fibromyalgia and other conditions, such as endometriosis and complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS)
How Does Ketamine Relieve Chronic Pain?
Ketamine is truly a remarkable drug unlike any other. It acts in ways that many other medicines cannot. This is why ketamine therapy can often provide relief when other conventional methods fail — for example, most people with treatment-resistant depression that doesn’t respond to antidepressants find relief with ketamine therapy. Ketamine is also useful for alleviating the symptoms of anxiety.
Ketamine can also often relieve chronic pain in cases where other medications have been less successful than hoped. Ketamine is also clinically proven to provide effective relief from chronic pain. But, how does ketamine relieve pain?
Specifically, ketamine acts on different receptors in the brain. For example, ketamine is an antagonist of the NMDA receptor, which means it can prevent glutamate from activating it. This is why ketamine can be used as an anesthesia, albeit at much higher doses than we use to treat chronic pain and other conditions at our outpatient ketamine clinic. Ketamine can also activate opioid receptors at higher doses and raise the level of GABA in the brain, which induces calm and a sense of well-being.
How ketamine works in the brain to relieve chronic pain:
- Preventing glutamate from activating N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors.
- Activating opioid receptors at higher doses to head off chronic pain in the CNS.
- Blocking some sodium and potassium channels, similar to local anesthesia.
- Increasing GABA in the brain, a neurotransmitter that causes a sense of relaxation
A Note About Treating Chronic Pain
While ketamine therapy for chronic pain can be a helpful part of your pain management regime, it is important to have your chronic pain properly diagnosed and charted by your physician or healthcare provider. Don’t skip right to the chronic pain relief with ketamine or anything else until you have a diagnosis and are confident you know what is causing your chronic pain.
Of course, you also want to be doing whatever you can to treat the underlying condition as well. Chronic pain relief exists because sometimes it is impossible to recover sufficiently from an illness or injury to end your chronic pain — but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. Medical science has not yet found a way to cure arthritis, fibromyalgia, or chronic headaches — however, there are almost always steps you can take to lessen the pain.
The most effective solutions for managing chronic pain generally include more than one component. For example, your physician or sports medicine specialist may recommend an NSAID to reduce inflammation while also recommending cool packs and an analgesic to lessen your pain.
Ketamine for chronic pain can be a powerful tool in your chronic pain management regimen — always make sure that the people treating you for chronic pain or anything else have complete and up-to-date medical information for you. This is the best way to ensure you get effective treatment, whether you choose to incorporate chronic pain treatment with ketamine or not.
When seeking treatment for chronic pain with ketamine, or without:
- Make certain you have the cause of your pain diagnosed by a medical professional.
- Provide the most complete and current medical records you can to anyone treating you.
- Recognize that often chronic pain requires a combination of measures for maximum relief.
- Consider incorporating non-medicinal means of pain management along with ketamine for pain management or other medicines.
Is Chronic Pain Treatment with Ketamine Right for Me?
Ketamine therapy is usually not the first line of defense against chronic pain, as other medicines are easier to access and administer and are usually effective enough. However, conventional chronic pain treatments often fail to provide sufficient relief for many people. You may develop a tolerance or just not respond well to a certain medicine, for example.
Chronic pain treatment with ketamine can often make a critical difference for someone who hasn’t been able to get sufficient relief with other methods. Ketamine therapy is safe and has been used in medical settings for decades. The simplest way to determine if ketamine may be a good fit for you is to schedule a consultation with Quest Ketamine Therapies. Our free 15-minute consultation can be done over the phone for your convenience.
If you’d like to contact us directly, you are welcome to email us at info@questketamineclinics.com, call (425) 654-5433, or send a text to (206) 589-5958. Be sure to leave your name, contact information, and the best time(s) for us to reach you.
