Depression is one of the most common mental illnesses in the country, affecting almost 21 million adultseach year. Treating the disorder is difficult for many, but here in West Michigan alternative treatment options are on the rise.
Lifeline Intervention Therapeutics is a new clinic that has opened in Kent County that provides life changing effects through its treatments.
One of those being Ketamine, which is a disassociation anesthetic mainly used to induce a loss of consciousness before surgery.
However, that's not how it has been perceived over the years, with many knowing it from news reports as a drug that's abused. But it also has its benefits, which the Doctors running lifeline know all too well.
"I think of it like, it's almost like Miracle Grow for your brain," said Dr. Gilbert Masterson Psychiatrist at Lifeline Therapeutics. "So it actually, if I could look at your brain when you we’re getting this treatment, you'd see it kind of pick up and plump up and just like a garden would be doing. So it's really exciting and it's healing. It's not treating."
Ketamine treatment is not something that's new to West Michigan, with other Ketamine clinics being ran around the area. But Lifeline takes those extra steps to ensure the treatment is right for the patient.
“Psychiatric care often is not available at some of the clinics in the area," said Dr. Julie Wilson, Owner of Lifeline Integrated Therapeutics. "There's no psychiatrist on site. We have one on site. We offer full psychiatric medical management.”
And having a psychiatrist in house ensures the patient is right for Ketamine, which has had a negative reputation.
"Ketamine can help," Dr. Wilson said. "It's not helpful when things like what happened to Matthew Perry happen. When it's administered properly, we give it here in the office, that it's safe and it's effective and it helps."
Having those individuals who care is important, especially when dealing with those who have served our country.
“Many of the veterans that come back are so severely traumatized by what happened," Dr. Wilson said. " The PTSD that they have is so significant. That the depression that comes along with it, you know, they can't even really differentiate between the two.”
But it’s that care and understanding that brings in the patients, like Danielle Dykhuis has lived with mental heal struggles for years.
"I had already been to the Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic. I had shock therapy, nothing was working,” said Dykhuis.
Now, at her lowest moments she's turns to the alternative care that is Ketamine. Which has helped her in ways she could never imagine.
"After the first infusion, my suicidal ideations were gone just that day, as soon as I left,” said Dykhuis. “I don't have to be on a whole handful of medications anymore, where I used to be on four or five plus a benzodiazepine.”
Right now Ketamine is not FDA approved to treat any psychiatric disorder. But back inJuly, Johnson and Johnson did seek approval for a nasal Ketamine spray, that is currently in waiting.
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