Hello,
This is Dr. Tanya Dall MD and I’ve given myself 10 minutes to answer a question about why we treat both pain and mood.
Question: “I came in for my back pain, but my mood has improved even more. Why is that?”
Answer:
This is something we see all the time, and it is not a coincidence. Physical pain and emotional pain are processed in the same areas of the brain, specifically the limbic system. When you are in chronic physical pain, those pathways are constantly on fire. This leads to a secondary “emotional” pruning where your ability to feel joy and hope is literally crowded out by the pain signals. You can’t have one without the other eventually being affected.
Ketamine is a “multimodal” treatment. It doesn’t know the difference between a “pain signal” and a “depression signal”; it just sees overactive NMDA receptors and “pruned” neural branches. By addressing the health of the nervous system as a whole, we are treating both conditions simultaneously. This is why we often see a “lifting of the fog” even in patients who were only seeking help for a physical injury. The brain is an integrated system, and when you heal one part, the rest often follows.
This is also why we include both mental and physical components in our reprogramming protocol. We want to address the whole person. If we only treated the back, the depression would eventually drag the physical health back down. If we only treated the mood, the chronic pain would eventually trigger a relapse in depression. By focusing on the health of the entire nervous system, we are building a foundation for a much more resilient and healthy life.
If you have more questions, feel free to email us at info@renewketamineinfusion.com or book a free consultation.
Cheers,
Dr. Justin Yanuck, MD & Dr. Tanya Dall, MD, Dr. David Richter, MD
Renew Ketamine Infusion
Tustin, San Juan Capistrano, Seal Beach
