What is Postpartum Depression?

Both your body and mind might go through many changes after pregnancy. Many women might feel the “baby blues” after giving birth for a couple of days where they feel sad or empty. However, if those feelings of emptiness or hopelessness don’t go away after two weeks, you might be suffering from postpartum depression. Postpartum depression is a serious mental illness involving the brain that can take a toll on your life. It’s important to look out for signs if you think this might be happening to you or someone you know because postpartum depression can affect up to 15% of people. Some of the symptoms of postpartum depression include feeling sad, worthless, or hopeless, excessive worrying, loss of interest in hobbies, changes in appetite, crying for no reason, and lack of interest in your baby or excessive worrying about your baby.

How to Treat Postpartum Depression

There are many ways to treat postpartum depression including therapy, medicine, electroconvulsive therapy, and ketamine. Therapy helps walk you through strategies to change how your depression makes you think, act, or feel. There are also a few types of medicine offered such as antidepressants. Be sure your doctor helps you find the right medicine to take while breastfeeding. ECT can be used in extreme cases to help treat postpartum depression. You can also have multiple different treatment plans working together, such as medicine and therapy.

Ketamine and Postpartum Depression

Ketamine has been proven to have a positive effect on major depression, including postpartum depression. Ketamine has specifically shown to be more effective in women that have a greater risk for PPD. Women who’ve had PPD before have a risk of PPD that increases 30% each new pregnancy. There has also been a lot of research done to back ketamine’s safety. One study done at the University of Chicago found that two-thirds of patients experienced fast-acting results that were long-lasting with little to no side effects. These findings were then published in the American Journal of Psychiatry and concluded that patients receiving a single ketamine infusion experienced a significant reduction in their depression symptoms with little to no side effects.

Positive Effects of Ketamine on Postpartum Depression

Many mothers experiencing PPD take SSRI’s, however these can take several weeks to months to begin working. Yet a lot of these mothers need a solution sooner than that. In addition, because of this long time span that traditional antidepressants take to work, most mothers will have to stop breastfeeding. Ketamine infusion therapy offers a safe, faster option to give women suffering from postpartum depression immediate relief. Ketamine infusion therapy is always done in a safe environment with a certified, trained physician. If you would like to learn more about ketamine treatment for PPD, you should contact http://austinketaminespecialists.com/ .