KETAMINE FOR MIGRAINE IN
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND
If you are a long-time migraine sufferer, then you are likely familiar with the terrifying prodrome and aura leading up to a long-lasting and painful headache. Your migraine experience may differ from others, because there are many manifestations of this painful condition.
The prodrome phase, which can last from minutes to hours to days, may involve mood changes such as feeling irritable, anxious, and depressed. Or, you may feel fatigued, with frequent yawning.
Some patients describe tinnitus, or ringing in the ears. Others say that they experience an increase in urination frequency.
After the prodrome, comes the aura. Many patients describe visual disturbances, such as flashes of light, shimmering lights, zigzag patterned lines, or blind spots. Some patients experience stroke-like symptoms, known as a brainstem aura, including numbness, tingling, confusion, weakness, poor coordination, or difficulty speaking.
The aura may also be long-lasting, but for some, it provides only a short warning that the migraine attack is coming. The acute migraine symptoms include throbbing and pain on one side of the head, or sometimes on both sides.
HAVE YOU EVER FELT LIKE AN ELECTRIFIED ICE PICK WAS BEING THRUST INTO YOUR SKULL THROUGH YOUR EYES?
The horrible headache pain caused by the common migraine is nothing to take lightly. If you have experienced migraine pain so bad, it felt like your head would explode, then you know how serious this severe headache condition can be.
Patient accounts of migraine symptoms are quite disturbing. No one should ever discount a migraine as being something easily tolerated or ignored.
A migraine sufferer may be extremely intolerant of light and sound. Even the slightest sound or change in light can induce severe nausea and vomiting.
Changes in position during a migraine attack may cause the sensation of a dense, thick liquid slowly moving through your head. The throbbing pain is blinding and excruciating, often with nausea, hurting teeth, and a sense that your eyes are being painfully pulled back into your head.
You can imagine that a migraine sufferer would do anything to prevent another attack, or to find relief from the unrelenting torture of an ongoing headache, which can feel like a grinding, rough metal prod being thrust in and out of the brain.
If you suffer from migraines, you will do anything to end the severe head pain that can last for days. Yet, when you ask your primary care doctor for help, they typically have little to offer. They can prescribe the basic migraine meds and provide a food restriction list, but little else.
INTRACTABLE MIGRAINE HEADACHES RESPOND WELL TO INTRAVENOUS KETAMINE.
Fortunately, ketamine infusion therapy works well to relieve migraine headache pain and to reduce the frequency and severity of future migraines. When migraine medications have been tried without success, IV ketamine is an excellent option that can provide lasting relief.
If you suffer from chronic migraine headaches, you are probably aware of the commonly prescribed treatment options for this chronic pain condition. The traditional triptan drugs, such as Imitrex, Zomig, Frova, and Relpax are the mainstay of migraine therapy.
Unfortunately, these medications do not always work. Doctors, and their migraine patients, get frustrated when they run out of treatment options.
Why are more doctors not aware of the power of infusion therapy with ketamine to provide pain relief for migraine patients? The fact is that ketamine therapy for migraines works where traditional therapies fail.
A migraine headache, once it starts, can last for days. Imagine being in excruciating pain for days on end with no relief in sight. Where other treatments fail to stop migraine headaches, ketamine works.
When pain and discomfort are so severe and long-lasting that depression, and suicidal ideation ensue, ketamine can provide relief and restore the feeling of being human again. If a headache is so bad that it makes the sufferer want to try to die to end the pain, ketamine infusion therapy can offer hope for relief.
GIVE THE GIFT OF RELIEF FROM PAIN AND SUFFERING TO A LOVED ONE.
It is difficult to see a friend or family member suffer in pain. We want to find solutions to help relieve their suffering.
If someone close to you has treatment-resistant migraines, and they have not yet tried ketamine treatment for migraines, they may be missing out on therapy that can take away their pain. Ketamine works on NMDA receptors in the brain, and it is well known for relieving a variety of chronic pain syndromes.
In fact, patients with chronic back pain, neck pain, fibromyalgia, RSD/CRPS, and other painful conditions have found relief after a series of IV infusions at their local ketamine clinic. This safe dissociative anesthetic has been used for decades, allowing doctors and scientists to study the effects on patients who suffer from a variety of conditions. With many years of experience, experts have learned that ketamine infusion therapy works particularly well for refractory migraines.
NO MATTER WHAT TYPE OF MIGRAINE YOU MAY HAVE, IV KETAMINE TREATMENTS CAN HELP.
Has your doctor tried to fix your migraine problem with a list of lifestyle changes? While these well-meaning recommendations may be helpful, it is like trying to put out a forest fire with a glass of water.
Doctors tell their migraine patients to start by avoiding certain foods that can trigger a migraine, such as cheese, yogurt, wine, and caffeine. Then, they recommend Advil or Tylenol for the pain. To a migraine sufferer, it feels like trying to fix a broken bone with a Band-Aid.
The next step is to try one of the many triptan drugs, such as Imitrex. When these meds don’t help, the family doctor may suggest a referral to a neurologist for further testing.
Both doctors and the general public must be educated on the therapeutic value of ketamine for migraines. When we start to utilize this important therapeutic tool more often, we will see far less migraine agony.
IS KETAMINE BETTER THAN OPIOIDS FOR MIGRAINE PAIN?
Doctors prescribe opioids for chronic pain treatment, including neuropathic pain. When other therapies fail, opioids can offer relief from the relentless discomfort of intractable pain.
Of course, there are serious downsides to opioids. Patients may become addicted to opioid medications. And, most chronic pain patients who take opioids develop tolerance, where the medication stops working effectively.
Other opioid complications include constipation and sedation. Doctors prefer to reserve opioid medications as a last resort for treating pain.
Severe headache pain is one of the worst types of pain. Cluster headaches and migraine headaches are among the worst types of headache, causing severe, intolerable, long-lasting pain.
When a doctor treats a person with a severe migraine, they want to do whatever it takes to get their patient out of pain. When other treatments fail, they may try prescribing opioids.
While opioids can offer temporary relief from headache symptoms, they are never a good long-term solution. A pain pill may stave off a migraine attack, but most doctors agree that the risks associated with opioids outweigh the benefits.
Ketamine therapy works far better than opioids for migraines as a lasting solution. With a limited series of ketamine infusions, a patient will benefit from long-lasting migraine relief.
WILL KETAMINE TREATMENT AND KETAMINE ASSISTED PSYCHOTHERAPY BECOME THE GOLD STANDARD FOR MIGRAINES?
Eventually, it is likely that ketamine treatment will become the gold standard of care for migraine therapy. As the migraine community continues to see success with ketamine infusion therapy, the word will get out about this revolutionary treatment option.
Ketamine works very well for depression treatment, anxiety treatment, PTSD treatment, and OCD treatment. And, it works very well for relieving migraines.
Unfortunately, the pharmaceutical industry is heavily entrenched in the medical field and medical education system. They influence the decisions that doctors make.
Big pharma is unable to profit from ketamine, since it is an older, off-patent medication. Instead of promoting the safest and most effective treatments, such as ketamine, they push newer brand-name drugs with large profit margins.
Hence, many doctors are not aware of the power of ketamine to improve the lives of people who endure migraines. As a result, IV ketamine infusion has been the best kept secret in migraine and chronic pain management for many years.
As an informed public becomes more educated about their own healthcare needs, ketamine will soon become one of the gold standard treatments for migraine care. In the future, ketamine infusion may be generally accepted as one of the preferred treatments for refractory chronic migraines.