Anxiety & Depression Can Ketamine Cure Your Depression & Anxiety? With Physician Assistant Lauren Swanson By Amy Morin, LCSW, Editor-in-Chief Published on September 05, 2022 Print Verywell / Julie Bang Table of Contents View All Table of Contents Meet Lauren Swanson Why Lauren Swanson Is Mentally Strong What You’ll Hear on the Show What You’ll Learn About Mental Health and Mental Strength Quotes From Lauren More About the Podcast Every Monday on The Verywell Mind Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Amy Morin, LCSW, interviews authors, experts, entrepreneurs, athletes, musicians, and other inspirational people about the strategies that help them think, feel, and do their best in life. Follow Now: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Google Podcasts Meet Lauren Swanson Lauren Swanson is a board-certified physician assistant. In addition to her experience in family practice, she also has experience in urgent care, cosmetic dermatology, and neuropsychiatry. After feeling somewhat burned out by working in family practice, Lauren decided to begin offering Ketamine treatment through Wondermed, an online teletherapy site. She has training in Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy and is well-versed in mental health. She appreciates how the medication provides so many of her patients with immediate relief from anxiety, depression, PTSD, and chronic pain. Why Lauren Swanson Is Mentally Strong When Lauren saw the powerful changes Ketamine treatment had on someone in her personal life, she decided to begin working exclusively to prescribe Ketamine. She has learned a lot about Ketamine, mental health, and the benefits patients receive and she works on educating the public about how Ketamine treatment can improve lives and reduce suffering. What You’ll Hear on the Show Why Lauren believes so strongly in Ketamine The conditions that Ketamine can treat How Ketamine interacts with the brain differently than other medications The benefits Ketamine can offer Case studies from Lauren’s practice and how it affected different people The risk factors associated with Ketamine Who makes a good candidate for Ketamine and who doesn’t The difference between IV Ketamine and oral Ketamine How Ketamine is used at home (the precautions and protocols) How Ketamine interacts with other drugs Integration, breathwork, apps, and journaling How to get long-term results from Ketamine Typical duration of Ketamine treatment What Is Ketamine Infusion Therapy? What You’ll Learn About Mental Health and Mental Strength It’s clear that the most commonly prescribed treatments for mental health issues aren’t always effective. Antidepressants don’t work for many people. Therapy isn’t always effective. Even alternative strategies, like yoga, don’t always lead to improved mental health. The emerging research on psychedelics is promising. It’s teaching us a lot about the brain and how we can develop new neural pathways that improve mental health. If the treatment you’ve tried so far hasn’t worked for you, it’s not a sign of weakness. It just means the treatments you have tried haven’t been a good match for you. What works for one person won’t work for everyone. It takes mental strength to keep looking for solutions that can help you think, feel, and do your best. Quotes From Lauren Lauren Swanson If someone is really conditioned in their depression or anxiety to have a negative thought pattern or rumination, or just a very narrow outlook on their situation, ketamine will just immediately take them out of that. — Lauren Swanson "It's really important with ketamine to also use integration tools, to kind of unpack that session and use what you've learned from it to integrate into what might help you." "The idea is that you get someone on ketamine to get them off. This is a whole different frame of mind than what we're used to. These other medications, Prozac, only work when you're taking them. Ketamine, you use it as a catalyst to really make these changes, mold that neuroplasticity, and then you get off of it." Three Types of Dissociative Drugs and Their Effects More About the Podcast The Verywell Mind Podcast is available across all streaming platforms. If you like the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Reviews and ratings are a great way to encourage other people to listen and help them prioritize their mental health too. Editor’s Note: Please be mindful that this transcript does not go through our standard editorial process and may contain inaccuracies and grammatical errors. Thank you. For media or public speaking inquiries, contact Amy here. Download the Transcript Links and Resources Check out Wondermed, an at-home ketamine provider. Study Shows Rapid Brain Response to Ketamine for Depression Cognitive Function Rapidly Restored After Ketamine Treatment, Decreases Suicidality If You Liked This Episode, You Might Also Like These Episodes Can Psychedelics Heal Your Emotional Pain? With Psychologist Brian Pilecki Friday Fix: The Pros and Cons of Online Therapy How to Know if You Have Existential Depression With Melissa Bernstein Ketamine for Treatment-Resistant Depression By Amy Morin, LCSW, Editor-in-Chief Amy Morin, LCSW, is the Editor-in-Chief of Verywell Mind. She's also a licensed clinical social worker, psychotherapist, and international bestselling author. Her books, including "13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do," have been translated into more than 40 languages. Her TEDx talk, "The Secret of Becoming Mentally Strong," is one of the most viewed talks of all time. See Our Editorial Process Meet Our Review Board Share Feedback Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! What is your feedback? Other Helpful Report an Error Submit Speak to a Therapist Online Advertiser Disclosure × The offers that appear in this table are from partnerships from which Verywell Mind receives compensation.