JENNIE: Area’s first ketamine clinic opens in Evans

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF)– You’ve heard a lot about ketamine- sometimes called “Special K”- in the news. Our guest today gives us a fresh perspective about the medical benefits of the drug.

Earlier this summer, a Ketamine infusion clinic called Elevated Health Augusta opened in Evans, GA. It was established to provide cutting-edge ketamine infusions, offering hope and recovery for patients battling mental health ailments.

As the only clinic of its kind in the area, the team is uniquely trained to administer ketamine infusions for the treatment of mood disorders. Lauren Bursey is the leader of that team. She’s a family nurse practitioner.

JENNIE: Lauren, you’ve said opening this clinic was a big goal in your life because you want to help people who are suffering from mental illnesses recover. And this is another way to do it.

Lauren Bursey: “Yes, ma’am. So ketamine is indicated for patients who have treatment resistant disease. So if you have depression, PTSD, anxiety and you’ve taken multiple medications like a Zoloft or a Lexapro and you haven’t achieved recovery, ketamine can kind of help pull you out of that hole and help you get back on the track of life. So right now in our clinic, it’s a 40 minute infusion. We’re only doing IV. And patients about 20 minutes in, they start to feel very relaxed and they’re able to experience that dissociative effect if they want to. If they don’t, if they don’t like it, they just keep their eyes open and talk with me or their family member or even their therapist.”

JENNIE: So the therapist can come with them or you have a therapist there?

Lauren Bursey: “Their therapist can come with them. And so we have two infusion rooms that are big enough for another person to sit in the room other than myself, because I am with the patient the whole infusion, taking their vital signs every 5 minutes. But they can have their family member or their therapist come in and they can do talk therapy during the ketamine infusion. So we work closely with a lot of therapists in our area, especially in Evans and Martinez, who will come with their patients to do that.”

JENNIE: How many treatments would be effective?

Lauren Bursey: “So clinical data shows that 6 treatments over 28 days. Most patients will come in for an infusion on a Tuesday, a Thursday, and we do that the whole way through if that works for them. Some patients feel better after 4 infusion, so they may wait and just get another infusion at a later time. It’s really patient specific. Our vets that we’ve treated, they get six over the 28 days. They’ve done very well. We have several patients who have come to us straight from alcohol detox, and so we do more intensive therapy and close monitoring with them over this 28 days. I have some patients who have had trauma, they’ve had child loss, and so they do maybe 4 or 5 infusions. And then at the date of birth of that child or the date of the loss of that child, they’ll come in for an infusion, or at Christmas. There’s a lot of ways that you can use ketamine to kind of help with those intense bouts of depression, PTSD, anxiety, depending on what it is and where you’re at in your journey.”

You can learn a lot more about ketamine infusions by visiting Elevated Health Augusta . It’s at 7013 Evans Town Center Boulevard, Suite 203. That’s in Evans. You can call (706) 426-7383 or visit their website at ElevatedHealthAugusta.com .

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