Substance Abuse Treatment
Ketamine & NAD IV Therapy for Addiction
Substance abuse disorder plagues thousands in our community. Many of us are struggling to cope with past trauma and the pressures of modern life. We primarily offer intravenous treatments scheduled around your therapy sessions. Ketamine therapy is the primary modality used however many opt to do IV NAD infusions in conjunction. Some opt to primarily work with IV NAD alone, especially if contraindications to ketamine therapy exist. At Relevare, we look forward to working with your primary addiction provider to find a treatment protocol that works well for you.
IV Ketamine Treatments
A recent systemic review identified the benefits of ketamine in the treatment of alcohol, cocaine, cannabis, and opioid use disorders. Benefits include improvements in craving, motivation, as well as abstinence rates. Therapy alongside treatment is of most benefit and we look forward to working with your primary addiction healthcare provider so that we may best care for you. There is growing evidence that ketamine can help not only boost mood but change your perspective on life. Our mission at Relevare is to restore hope and allow you to live a more dignified human life.
Restore Your Life
It’s time to get out of your head and back into your life. It’s time to break bad habits and negative cycles. Ketamine treatments have helped countless many and continue to show promising results.
We recommend listening to this interview with Dr. Levine about the benefits of ketamine in opioid use disorder and chronic pain.
How Does Ketamine Help With Addiction?
In summary, ketamine helps with withdrawal symptoms, decreases cravings, and increases motivation, and studies have shown improvement in abstinence rates. The biochemical mechanism seems to be similar to the treatment of other mental health conditions, especially if there is a component of trauma.
Ketamine is known to act on the NMDA receptor as an antagonist, meaning it blocks the action of that reception. In addition, ketamine also acts on the AMPA receptor (an action of R-ketamine that is missing from the nasal spray Esketamine). The downstream effect of the action on both these receptors results in modulating signals and decreasing the amount of glutamate, a major neurotransmitter inside the brain. Glutamate is actually involved in more than 90% of all excitatory functions in the human brain. This is why it is so useful for so many disorders including addiction. With the inhibition of glutamate, you get an increase in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). This is huge since it leads to the formation of new neurons (neurogenesis) and new connections between neurons (synaptogenesis). Ketamine works unlike no other medication. In addition to its action on NMDA and AMPA as stated above (which is thought to be the primary mechanism), it also affects receptors of the aminergic, opioid, and cholinergic systems. This is thought to contribute to behavioral and neural network changes, which is exactly what we want.
A recent systemic review published in 2018 identified seven completed studies indicating ketamine can be of benefit in the treatment of a variety of substance disorders including alcohol, cocaine, cannabis, and opioid use disorders. You can learn more by watching some fun TED talks and other educational videos as well as links to pertinent scientific studies on our science and education page. Many with substance abuse struggle with some kind of trauma from their past. We recommend looking up the studies on PTSD as well as finding a certified trauma therapist to help you work through past experiences so you can be free to live in the present and do what is best for your future.
NAD, or nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, is a naturally occurring co-enzyme of the vitamin niacin that has a lot of important and complex roles in the body and is used in essentially every cell of the body. NAD therapy isn’t approved to treat addiction or withdrawal in people with substance use disorder but there is some promising evidence. Excessive use of drugs including alcohol depletes the body’s natural stores of NAD. NAD therapy can help with the treatment of addiction by flushing out some of the drugs that are still in the user’s system, reducing the withdrawal effects, decrease in cravings, and allowing the body to produce more energy.
During Your Ketamine Infusion
We strive to ensure all of our patients feel as comfortable as possible in their private, themed rooms during treatment. We promise individualized care and our full attention. Ketamine can make patients sensitive to sound and light therefore each patient gets optional nightshades and noise canceling headphones and a personal tablet where music is streamed. Although a lot of patients, especially those suffering from anxiety, can be nervous about their first treatment, by their second treatment they are feeling a lot more relaxed and looking forward to and more open to the experience. It is definitely a process and different for each of us and we are here to help you if we can. During your intake, we will take the time to explain what to expect and how to set a proper intention for your session. To find out more about the journey visit our Patient Prep page. For even more information we recommend the book A Ketamine Infusion: A Patient’s Guide 2nd edition. It was written in plain language by a ketamine patient herself. We are not affiliated with the author or published, we just found it to be a useful resource.
We are a fully equipped medical facility ready for the unlikely event of an emergency. Dr. Mallek is a board-certified anesthesiologist with extensive experience in situations far more acute than those encountered at our clinic. The clinic is designed to be comforting, and the right setting for the treatments offered.
Restoring Hope
If you tried and exhausted other addiction treatment options and are ready to take back control of your life then Relevare is here to help.
Contact our team today and schedule your free 15-minute phone consultation to learn if ketamine and/or NAD infusions are right for you.
Ready To Start Your New Journey In Life?
Ready to get started? Call us today for your free phone consultation.