Your escort will stay with you for an hour or a couple of hours on the unit before you can go home. It is important to remember that after treatment, you are not allowed to drive, drink alcohol, look after your kids, or even sign legal documents. You can do these after twenty-four hours.
Before Your Treatment
The following are the things you need to prepare before undergoing ketamine infusion treatment.
- Complete our mood monitoring system every day after assessment, treatment, and follow-up.
- Have food at least two hours before coming to the clinic.
- Avoid taking sedatives or anticonvulsant drugs as these may interfere in the effects of ketamine.
- Have someone to accompany you to the clinic. It could be one of your family members, friends or loved ones. Tell your escort they need to stay with you an hour after the treatment and that they have to remain in the recovery area while the treatment is ongoing.
- You may bring your music gadget with headphones and you can listen to relaxing music while having the ketamine treatment.
- Fill out the PKB care plan form upon arriving at the clinic and you will then be instructed to proceed to the ketamine treatment room.
- Remember that filming or any kind of photography is not allowed during the entire treatment.
During Your Treatment
- You will be seated in a comfortable chair while the doctor places the needle into the vein on the back of your hand and with the use of a pump to slowly infuse a low dose of ketamine for 40 minutes.
- You can feel a cold ketamine liquid when it starts to flow, and later heavy and numb on that area.
- During the infusion, you may wish to listen to soft, relaxing music or calming sounds such as rain, sea waves, or forest sounds as this will make you feel relaxed and free from any distractions or noise. If this is your first time to receive ketamine treatment, you must understand that you may experience a floating-like and a little dissociative feeling but it will pass in an hour. We can determine if you are a responder after two or three further treatments.
- The ketamine team will stay with you throughout the procedure to closely monitor your vital signs and ask you to express how you are feeling. This way, the team can be able to watch for any unfavourable effects that may appear.
- You need to stay in the recovery room for an hour with your escort until your grogginess subsides.
- Before you leave, update your PKB care plan stating your ketamine experience.
After Your Ketamine Treatment
Keep completing our mood monitoring system all through the follow-up period. We will send a letter to inform you, your GP and Psychiatrist about the overview of your treatment. After your last infusion, we will schedule you for a follow-up appointment through phone to discuss further treatment options.
- Maintenance ketamine infusions – it is set to infuse the desired dose of ketamine at prescribed intervals. The ketamine clinic consultant will personally evaluate all patients on intermittent infusion not less than every six months
- Maintenance infusion time interval – usual interval between maintenance infusions are 2-6 weeks and the time interval will be guided by your response to treatment.
- Supplementation with other medications – the ketamine clinic consultant will assess and evaluate the patient’s status before determining what appropriate medication can be taken with ketamine
Take note that this 30-minute follow-up appointment must be paid a week before the scheduled date.
Follow-Up
Request Your Consultation Now
If you or a loved one is struggling with a mood disorder or chronic pain condition and other treatment methods have failed to provide relief, then ketamine may be a viable treatment option for you. Contact us today to learn more about our ketamine treatments now available in London, UK.