09/23/2022
Elevate Medical is proud to be a Certified SPRAVATO® (Esketamine) Treatment Center
SPRAVATO® (Esketamine) is a prescription medicine given by nasal spray and taken with an oral antidepressant to improve the symptoms of depression in adults who have treatment-resistant depression.
There’s good news for people with severe treatment-resistant depression: Esketamine is a groundbreaking therapy that can provide relief from major depression within hours. “For the first time in 60 years, we have a new antidepressant therapy that isn’t just a spinoff of existing drugs,” says Adam Kaplin, M.D., Ph.D., a psychiatrist with Johns Hopkins Medicine. “For some people, esketamine therapy is revolutionary, giving them the chance to experience life without depression for the first time in decades.
Esketamine is made from a drug called ketamine, an anesthetic that has also been used for many years to treat depression. But it wasn’t until recently that esketamine, a more potent version of ketamine, earned FDA approval specifically for use as a nasal spray for those with treatment-resistant depression.
Esketamine is derived from part of the ketamine molecule,” says Kaplin, who has studied the drug for three years. “Because it’s more potent, you can use it at a lower dose and theoretically have fewer side effects. Now that it’s available in an intranasal version and approved by the FDA, it’s more likely that insurance companies will cover the treatment.
Esketamine, like ketamine, has the potential to distort your perception during the first two hours after treatment, so it has to be administered in a clinic setting. Treatment for esketamine nasal spray is done on an outpatient basis.
With the nasal spray, you give yourself three doses, spaced five minutes apart, under doctor supervision. You remain in the clinic under doctor observation until potential side effects have passed.
Esketamine must be used in conjunction with a conventional antidepressant. The intention is that esketamine provides rapid relief from depression symptoms until the other medication takes effect.
Talk to your healthcare provider to see if SPRAVATO® may be right for you.