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Ketamine Therapy for Mental Health & Chronic Pain Healing
Ketamine therapy is changing the way we approach mental health and chronic pain treatment. At Tampa Ketamine Infusions, we provide medically supervised ketamine treatments designed to help patients who may not have found lasting relief through traditional medications or therapies alone.
A New Approach to Healing
Ketamine has been used safely in medicine for decades and is now widely recognized for its potential role in supporting mental health and chronic pain treatment. Over the past 20 years and in dozens of studies, ketamine has been shown to produce remarkably fast antidepressant effects. As a result, it has become a life-changing treatment for many suffering from treatment-resistant depression, MDD, PTSD, and suicidal ideation.
Unlike many traditional medications that may take weeks or months to produce noticeable effects, ketamine therapy has been studied for its ability to rapidly support neuroplasticity, helping the brain form new neural connections that may improve mood regulation and pain processing.
When administered in a controlled medical setting, ketamine therapy may help patients who continue to struggle despite trying multiple treatment options.
Safe and Effective
In spite of its dramatic effect, ketamine is an extraordinarily safe medication. It has been used for over 50 years as an FDA-approved general anesthetic agent. It has wide application in operating rooms, ICUs, emergency departments, pain centers, burn units, pediatric anesthesia, and is non-addictive with few significant side effects. It is also listed on the World Health Organization's list of “essential medicines” due to its efficacy and safety record. For many, low-dose ketamine infusions used to treat major depression, mood disorders, and chronic pain can often succeed when all other treatments have failed…and can change lives!
Experience safe, effective, and personalized care that fits your lifestyle.
Ketamine Therapy for Chronic Pain Healing
Chronic pain affects more than just the body. It impacts energy, sleep, emotional health, relationships, and overall quality of life.
Ketamine therapy may help patients struggling with long-term pain conditions by targeting pain pathways within the nervous system and helping regulate abnormal pain signaling.
Conditions We Commonly Support:
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Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)
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Trigeminal Neuralgia
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Migraines & TMJ Disorders
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Neuropathic Pain
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Chronic Pain Syndromes
Ketamine Therapy for Mental Health Healing
For many patients, traditional mental health treatments may not provide the relief they are searching for. Ketamine therapy has emerged as one of the most promising advancements in mental health care for individuals struggling with treatment-resistant conditions.
Our team provides compassionate care in a safe, supportive environment focused on helping patients move toward emotional healing and stability.
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Experience Rapid Symptom Relief and a Renewed Sense of Clarity and Emotional Stability
Conditions We Commonly Support:
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Treatment-Resistant Depression & Suicidal Thoughts
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​Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
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Anxiety Disorders & OCD
Your Ketamine Therapy Experience
We understand that starting ketamine therapy may feel unfamiliar or even overwhelming at first. Our team is here to guide you through every step of the process and ensure you feel informed, comfortable, and supported throughout treatment.
Step 1 Consultation
We begin with a comprehensive consultation to review your medical history, symptoms, goals, and determine whether ketamine therapy may be appropriate for you.
Step 2: Personalized Treatment Plan
Your treatment protocol is customized based on your unique needs and health history.
Step 4: Ongoing Support
We continue monitoring your progress and adjusting treatment recommendations as needed throughout your care journey.
Step 3: Treatment Sessions
Treatments are performed in a calm, medically supervised environment designed for comfort and relaxation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ketamine is a safe, effective anesthetic that has been in use worldwide since 1970 and has been listed on the World Health Organization’s Essential Medicines list since 1985. Multiple studies and trials run at Mt. Sinai in New York, Yale and other prestigious universities and hospitals since 1990 have shown that ketamine is exceptionally effective in treating treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, anxiety, suicidal ideation, neuropathic pain and other related mood disorders. Unlike standard antidepressants like SSRIs and SNRIs which generally take 4 to 8 weeks to work (if they work at all), ketamine is fast-acting and can sometimes show immediate efficacy after a single intravenous dose. Because of its fast-acting nature, ketamine can be an extremely important tool in preventing suicide and immediately alleviating the suffering caused by major depressive disorder (MDD). More recently it has also been used to treat neuropathic pain and the symptoms of PTSD. The small doses and method of administration (intravenous infusion) used to treat depression patients differ greatly from those used in hospitals for anesthesia.
While ketamine can be legally prescribed and administered “off label” by licensed physicians, the drug has only been officially approved by the FDA as an anesthetic and not as a treatment for depression. By way of comparison, an estimated 30% of all medications are prescribed “off-label,” including many cancer drugs, and are frequently used by physicians even though they are not FDA approved for that particular purpose. Although ketamine has shown the potential to help millions of people find relief from the crushing effects of depression and neuropathic pain, pharmaceutical companies have been hesitant to invest the tens of millions of dollars required to fund the extensive and expensive clinical trial process necessary to get official FDA approval. Since the drug is and will remain off-patent, no company can own the revenue stream. Ketamine’s use for depression and neuropathic pain treatment follows all required rules and regulations, and has safely and effectively been prescribed as a fast-acting depression and pain treatment for almost a decade in private medical practices and some hospitals and HMOs.
Yes. All infusions are administered in our offices in comfortable, private treatment rooms.
A direct referral from a psychiatrist is not required. While a referral from any mental health care provider is encouraged, an initial phone or office consultation with one of our doctors can determine if you are a good candidate for ketamine therapy. We provide this initial consultation free of charge.
Not necessarily. Mild to moderate depression is often successfully treated by mental health professionals with antidepressant drugs and/or psychotherapy, which we encourage. The treatment of severe depression, major depressive disorder (MDD) treatment-resistant depression and other mood disorders is more difficult and requires a higher level of care, such as ECT, TMS or ketamine therapy. Ketamine infusion therapy is reserved for those patients with severe depression and anxiety that is considered treatment-resistant, or those with suicidal ideation.
We’ve shown very good results for patients suffering from all of these conditions, though we cannot predict with certainly which patients will respond.
About an hour, with an additional half hour of quiet time before discharge.
Assuming you begin to feel better during the initial treatments, a total of six infusions is recommended within a twelve-day period, which will maximize the ketamine effect on new dendrite and synapse growth. Thereafter, patients are placed on a maintenance program and are asked to return when they feel it necessary for single infusion boosters. During the maintenance period, the duration of relief varies by patient. The average duration of relief between booster infusions is 4-6 weeks. There is no way to predict what your needs will be. Some patients find that as they go through this process, the time between boosters lengthens, prompting them to come in every other month, every 3 months, or even less frequently. In our experience, patients find ketamine boosters effective for as long as needed with no long-term side effects.
Most patients experience a mild dissociation or inner reflective experience that is generally well tolerated and often quite enjoyable. If you find it unpleasant in any way, we can make adjustments to minimize or eliminate any unpleasant sensations. Within 15 minutes of ending the infusion, your thinking will be clear. There are no delayed “flashbacks.”
No. The low dose of ketamine you will receive does not cause any loss of consciousness.
The treatment is essentially pain-free. Other than a small prick while starting the infusion line, you will feel no pain and may even enjoy the experience.
Your thinking may be a bit cloudy and your walk a bit unsteady for an hour or so after treatment. You may also find that you will be somewhat tired for several hours. Hopefully, there will be a noticeable improvement in your mood shortly after one or two infusions.
Yes. Benzodiazepines, such as Klonopin, Xanax, and Ativan do interfere with ketamine if used daily and at higher doses. Lamictal (lamotrigine) in doses above 150mg/day also can block ketamine efficacy. Please speak with the doctor to discuss if and how to modify your existing medication regimen in order to maximize ketamine’s effectiveness.
Not at all. SSRIs and other antidepressant medications do not interfere with ketamine’s mechanism of action.
Almost none. Uncontrolled high blood pressure or heart failure need to be corrected in advance. Regardless, all patients will be closely monitored while undergoing treatment.
We’ve treated over 2,000 patients and have seen no instances of ketamine addiction. Ketamine has been used safely for surgical anesthesia and trauma management in hospitals and elsewhere for over five decades, has been included on the World Health Organization’s Essential Medicines list since 1985, and has few side effects. Although it is sometimes abused recreationally in high doses as a “club drug,” there is no evidence that ketamine is addictive.
Depression treatments require a very low dose, so hallucinations and any uncomfortable side effects that may come with much higher doses are extremely rare. Ketamine has few other side effects.
True emergencies, with a psychiatric referral, and those suffering from suicidal ideation that requires prompt attention can usually be seen within a day. In general, we prefer to schedule patients 5 to 7 days in advance. Since our offices are open seven days a week and we open early and close late, we can meet most patients’ scheduling needs.
You can eat, but you should not have any food within one hour of your appointment.
The patients we see are all considered treatment-resistant. That is, they have not responded to any available antidepressant medications and in many cases have not responded to ECT or TMS. While we cannot predict with certainty who will respond to ketamine, clinicians across the country have reported that roughly 70%-75% of patients who have not been helped by any other treatment do show a dramatic improvement in their mood with ketamine, and 3 out of 4 patients who present with suicidal ideation cease to have such thoughts. A meta-analysis by the American Psychiatric Association using data from multiple ketamine trials reported similar results, with 70% of treatment-resistant patients responding positively after receiving the initial round of low-dose infusions. We will usually know after the first two treatments if ketamine infusions will help you.
