4 Tips to Recognize And Treat Depression
This post was written and contributed by Ben Spielberg, M.S. – Founding Neuroscientist & Chief Executive Officer
According to the WHO (World Health Organization), depression is a condition that affects five perfect of adults. If you’re a woman, it’s important to know that depression may impact you more than men. Classic symptoms of this condition include low energy, low motivation, excessive feelings of guilt, suicidal ideation, and slowed movements.
If you were super into yoga or socializing with friends earlier this year and finding you’re no longer interested in those things or other things that used to excite you— that’s also a big indicator you could be suffering from depression. Crying a lot (not just while watching The Notebook for the 47th time), is another major sign as well as trouble sleeping, sleeping too much, or hitting the Snooze button over and over again.
There are also less common symptoms of depression including irritability, anger, anxiety, weight change, and pain.
Depression isn’t just feeling sad, it’s a real medical condition that can impact a variety of areas in your life including work, school, family, personal and professional endeavors. Left untreated, depression will impact every area of one’s life.
What To Do If You Think You’re Depressed
If you think you might be depressed, there’s no reason to wait on getting help. Make an appointment with a psychiatrist (for medication) and/or a psychologist for therapy. If you’ve tried these things and they aren’t working, or you’ve tried them in the past— you may want to consider Ketamine therapy or TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation).
What Is Ketamine Therapy
Ketamine can be a life changing treatment for people with depression. TMS and Brain Health, which has locations in Sedona, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas offers accessible and affordable ketamine treatment. Ketamine is administered in several ways— through a nasal spray, pill, or infusion. A lot of the time, people who try ketamine have already tried multiple medications without any relief or found side effects from those medications to be intolerable.
Originally used as a pediatric anesthetic, ketamine has shown to be an effective drug for fighting depression. It belongs to a class of treatments called dissociative or anesthetics. This alternative treatment has had many studies behind it that have concluded it to be an effective treatment for depression.
Ketamine works on a neurotransmitter called glutamate, which is the brain’s fastest excitatory neurotransmitter. Because of this, ketamine works very quickly and people can experience relief almost immediately during an session. Better yet, those benefits can last for quite some time.
For some people, especially those with TRD (treatment-resistant depression), it is truly the “magic pill,” they’ve been looking for. Studies have shown that Ketamine helps with other conditions including anxiety, PTSD, suicidal ideation, and even chronic pain.
What Is TMS
TMS is another option for treating depression. It’s a drug-free treatment that uses magnets to stimulate under active parts of the brain. It generally takes around six weeks and is more than 70 percent effective for providing long term relief from symptoms of depression.
Rapid TMS is another option where the patient undergoes ten sessions per day, spaced 1-hour apart for 5 consecutive days. This may be a better option for working professionals. A recent study from Stanford in The American Journal of Psychiatry showed that almost 80 percent of the participants who tried this protocol saw their severe depression go into remission.
Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP)
TMS and Brain Health offers IOP treatment which has a combination of psychotherapy, psychiatry, TMS, ketamine, or other treatments that we offer. Our medical director will decide what is best for an individual. We tailor each program to fit the lifestyle of our patients to meet their mental health and wellness goals as well as their availability with work, etc.
About Our Contributor
Ben Spielberg, M.S. – Founding Neuroscientist & Chief Executive Officer
With almost a decade in the field of brain-based behavioral health under his belt, Ben is more passionate about mental health now than ever. Ben went to graduate school at Columbia University and received a Master of Science degree in Neuroscience and Education. During graduate school, Ben developed a specialty in clinical neuromodulation and neuroimaging, where he used brain scans to predict off-label uses for TMS, neurofeedback, and Ketamine. Ben’s research has been published in prestigious journals such as Brain Stimulation and ACR Open Rheumatology, and presented at The Clinical TMS Society, The International Neuropsychological Society, and the Western Psychological Association. Ben prides himself in bringing together the special team of individuals that makes up TMS & Brain Health.
Ben can speak to the cutting edge pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical treatments for conditions many of us are suffering from including ADHD, depression, postpartum depression, and anxiety, as well as the brain science behind it all.
With almost a decade in the field of brain-based behavioral health, he developed a specialty in clinical neuromodulation and neuroimaging and used brain scans to predict off-label uses for TMS, neurofeedback, and Ketamine. Ben prides himself in bringing together the special team of individuals that makes up TMS & Brain Health.
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