OCD Treatment
OCD or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder can create mayhem in any person’s life. People with OCD tend to spend a lot of time thinking and obsessing over the fine details. As a result, they end up with broken families, relationships, and sometimes, they lose their jobs. All these then add up to the frustration of not getting things right and result in poor mental health. And despite the research going on, and therapy, to help alleviate the extent of the effects, these treatments work slow. However, the introduction of Ketamine to the list offers hope for a fast-acting drug that reduces the obsessions.
Ketamine for OCD Treatment
This is not the first time to hear about Ketamine. It has been in the medical industry for a long time, mainly used as an anesthetic, as approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Also, if you have been partying, then you might have heard of it, known in the streets as “Special K,” used for its hallucinogenic effects. However, in clinical application, there have been tests to use Ketamine to suppress and treat anxiety and mood varieties. And according to the experts, there has been tremendous progress.
Ketamine is a clinical drug tested for use with OCD patients. When used, the patients record a reduction in their obsessions and compulsions for up to 2 weeks. And above that, it takes effect in less than 2 hours of infusion. So, with Ketamine, it works fast and lasts a little longer compared to the traditional antidepressants.
How Does Ketamine for OCD Treatment Work?
According to the National Institute of Health, NIH, about one-third of all patients living with OCD fail to benefit from behavioral therapy and pharmacotherapy. And for the patients who benefit from the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), it takes a time lag of about two to three months to feel the effects. Effectively, the slow symptom relief in these patients ends up decreasing their quality of life. For these reasons, there is a need to find a better and faster drug to relieve OCD patients from their obsessions and compulsions.
That is why scientists are looking at Ketamine as an alternative. Ketamine proves to be a potential breakthrough for all people living with mood disorders. Whether it is treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, or bipolar disorder, Ketamine shows hope for better and faster treatment. That is why, when it comes to OCD, scientists are not slow on trying out. So, how does Ketamine work as an OCD treatment? To understand this, we first need to understand what causes an obsessive-compulsive disorder in an individual.
What Is OCD?
OCD is an anxiety disorder that leads to recurrent and persistent thoughts or images. These impulses are intrusive. They can be either obsession (the intrusive and unwanted thoughts) or compulsions (repetitive and ritualistic actions that take up a lot of time). And despite the extensive research by major health organizations, the exact cause of OCD is yet to be known. However, all concluded and current research points towards the imbalance of neurotransmitters as the leading cause of any disorder. Previously, the major neurotransmitters in question were serotonin and dopamine.
However, recent research shows that glutamate could also play a part in causing OCD. According to the International OCD Foundation, the patients with an abnormally high level of glutamate the cerebrospinal fluid (CFS) had OCD. Although it is yet to be verified, different research groups, such as the John Hopkins and Massachusetts General Hospitals, have found glutamate to be a causal factor for patients living with OCD. From the research, an increase in glutamate in the CFS leads to the manifestation of OCD symptoms.
Types of OCD and their symptoms
OCD manifests through a lack of cognitive control over repetitive actions and behaviors. From this, we can tell that there will be some common symptoms overlapping among the various types of OCD. From research, there are infinite forms of OCD, which could fall into one of the following categories:
- Contamination
An OCD patient suffering from contamination, or mental contamination is afraid of being dirty. These patients worry that slight dirt could cause unimaginable harm to them or their loved ones. Therefore, they develop a compulsion to continually clean all surfaces before they touch them or avoid the surfaces entirely. They also wash their hands a lot. These patients worry about coming to contact with public utilities such as toilets, phones, and transport. They fear touching money, door handles, staircase railings, and clothes. Others will develop a compulsion to avoid hospitals, crowds, public locations, and even shaking hands.
On the other hand, mental contamination will happen when a person feels badly treated. This could be from an abusive comment and could lead to physical harm or a feeling of uncleanliness. Humans are the sole cause of mental contamination. When feeling mentally contaminated, an OCD patient will tend to take long showers trying to clean the dirt off of them.
- Symmetry and orderliness
For this type of OCD, the patient spends a lot of time organizing their belongings in a specific manner. The compulsion ranges from books, tinned cans, clothes, pictures, or their houses. They will make sure they have everything in order. Sometimes, they will arrange based on a color code, alphabet, or a unique pattern they develop. They hate when things are not in place. For this reason, they could avoid social events in their personal space due to fear of disorganization. In turn, they end up disrupting their relationships.
- Checking
For this type, patients have an uncontrollable need to check on things. By doing so, they think that they are preventing damage and harm. For instance, you can find them continually checking on the gas for any leaks, the water pipes to prevent flooding, electric appliances, door locks and windows, cars, alarms, and so on. The patients spend a lot of time checking on these things several times a day.
- Intrusive thoughts
When a person suffers from unwanted and horrific thoughts, which could include causing physical or sexual harm to loved ones, then they suffer from this type of OCD. Although they do not prompt immediate compulsions, these thoughts are repetitive, involuntary, and disturbing. They could include religion, sex, relationships, body-focused, or magical intrusive thoughts.
- Hoarding
This is the disability to let go of old and irrelevant belongings. In this category, the patient will hold onto something due to a specific obsessive worry or fear.
Now, how does Ketamine help with treating OCD?
Scientists working on finding a treatment for OCD are looking at Ketamine as a possible solution. They suggest that Ketamine could be used to activate the glutamate neurotransmission in the brain. For this reason, Ketamine is seen to contribute majorly to the delay and sustained anti-depression effects. Ketamine also serves as a powerful effect on N-Methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors, and a single IV infusion rapidly decreases the severity of OCD and other depressive disorders. For patients suffering from comorbid OCD, or trichotillomania, Ketamine has shown tremendous improvement in their symptoms.
Some psychiatry and behavioral science experts are finding ways to use Ketamine for cognitive behavioral therapy. With this exposure and response prevention, the Ketamine helps the patients overcome their OCD.
Although Ketamine is shining some light on finding a rapid treatment for OCD, it comes at a cost. Researchers have found out that continuous and high doses of Ketamine could lead to bladder inflammation and cognitive impairment.
Coping with OCD
Although the symptoms associated with OCD are involuntary and often lead to anxiety, there are things you can do to help cope with the disorder. For instance, regular exercise will help you deal with anxiety. By engaging your body in different physical activities, you refocus your mind from the obsession or compulsions.
Also, getting enough sleep could take you a long way when it comes to coping with OCD. Inadequate sleep will prompt anxious thoughts and feelings. However, when your mind rests well, you are likely to achieve mental balance better than someone with sleep deprivation.
Finally, although drugs may seem to decrease your anxiety and worries, it is only for a short time before the thought come back to you. So, make sure you avoid alcohol and nicotine at all costs.
Could Ketamine Be The OCD Treatment You Have Been Looking for?
The current health industry is full of treatments for OCD. There is psychotherapy, which involves cognitive behavioral therapy and pharmacotherapy. When considered in the long term, they work. However, there is a problem with time. How fast their effects manifest and the quality of life they present to OCD patients. With all these considerations, there is a need to find a drug that not only works fast but also has long-lasting anti-depression and anxiety effects. Currently, Ketamine is providing hope for scientists that they can treat OCD rapidly, and improve the quality of life.
Despite the risk of dependence as a side effect, scientists are working to make Ketamine the best drug for OCD suppression. Since the findings are inconclusive, research is still going on, but there is hope. Ketamine is promising to be the next best OCD treatment. Once completed and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Association (FDA), Ketamine will drastically improve the lives of patients living with OCD and return normalcy to their lives.