Depression Treatment

Are you looking for depression treatment in Fairfax, Virginia? At The Care Clinic, our providers have experience treating pain conditions, psychiatric disorders, and addiction with innovative treatments like ketamine infusion therapy. Contact us today to learn how we can help you find relief.

What Are the Symptoms of Depression?

Some sufferers may only experience a depressive episode once, but for most, depression will linger and bring on many episodes throughout one’s life. During these depressive episodes, symptoms can look like this:

• Persistent feelings of hopelessness or emptiness
• Unexplained physical aches, such as headaches or backaches
• Feelings of sadness
• Frequent bouts of tearfulness
• Mood swings
• Irritability
• Angry outbursts
• Fatigue and lack of energy
• Trouble sleeping
• Changes in appetite (either weight loss or weight gain)
• Slowed thinking and body movements
• Fixation on self-blame

Ketamine Infusions for Depression Treatment

Ketamine infusions have quickly become one of the most popular treatment options for various mood or pain disorders.

Unlike many traditional medications like SSRIs which can take months to start working, ketamine therapy offers patients relief quickly, with some individuals reporting relief within a few hours of their first infusion session.

How Does Ketamine Help Treat Depression?

Scientists have found strong evidence suggesting that ketamine helps with depression by rapidly boosting the activity of glutamate, a neurotransmitter inside the frontal cortex of the human brain, while also allowing new pathways to form in the same area.

Ketamine bypasses the conventional serotonin pathways and immediately generates new neural connections by acting on glutamate. This chemical action allows ketamine to offer therapeutic effects quickly.

This is remarkably different from conventional antidepressants, which initially boost serotonin activity levels in several other areas of the brain to ultimately affect glutamate. This process usually takes weeks, sometimes months.

Where Will I Receive My Ketamine Infusions?

We strive to ensure all of our patients feel as comfortable as possible in their private rooms during treatment.

A number of our patients refer to a “dissociation” effect. This dissociative effect helps patients separate their thoughts from their feelings and can aid in reprocessing stressful thought processes and traumatic events.

This is all an ordinary component of the treatment. You will always remain in a safe atmosphere with our team to monitor you and be readily available to you during your infusion.