One of the absolute worst aspects of having obsessive compulsive disorder is that you rarely if ever get a reprieve from it. The obsessions a day in and out occurrence, and the inability to resist giving into them is what makes OCD such a tiresome mental health condition. It has the same biochemistry roots that anxiety does, and for a lot of people suffering with obsessive compulsive disorder they can get relief with antianxiety meds. If not, ketamine for OCD is an alternative they may try but how long does ketamine last for OCD? 

Ketamine is different from other OCD treatment medications in that it focuses nearly exclusively on the NDMA receptor to change how glutamate relays messages between brain cells. The misinterpretation of these messages is what causes people to have the compulsions they have with OCD, as well as being unable to overrule them. Without going into too much scientific explanation for how ketamine works for OCD, there’s a temporary boost in neuroplasticity that occurs, and it means those faulty messages are weakened considerably.  

This increased neuroplasticity and neurogenesis lasts for approximately 72 hours. So, 3 days is your answer for how long does ketamine last for OCD. Your doctor will be determining your correct dosage for it, but in your end, you’ll need to resupply it once every 3 days if you are finding that ketamine is effective for OCD treatment. You will also be advised to avoid stimuli that will trigger OCD while using this drug, and anyone who has substance abuse issues alongside their OCD may gain even more benefit from ketamine.  

Stop Negative Recircling  

Other considerations around how long does ketamine last for OCD is the way a person’s default mode network may reduce or lengthen this window of effectiveness. This is especially connected to a person’s propensity to ruminate, which is a term used when you are unable to continue revisiting and reanalyzing sources of distress or discontent. If a person has a very pronounced default mode network and cannot resist ruminating then the effectiveness of ketamine for OCD may be lessened.  

This detraction effect can also be true for more standard OCD treatment medications like Luvox or Prozac. Learning to stop ruminating is also important with how to stop an OCD attack, and good approaches for that are deep breathing techniques like vagus nerve breathing, deliberate distractions, and positive reinforcement. Some may also be asking can OCD cause panic attacks, but panic attacks most often are caused by situational triggers rather than the ongoing stimuli response that characterizes OCD. 

To conclude, we’ll say again that approximately 3 days is the timeline for how long does ketamine last for OCD. For those who find antidepressants don’t work for obsessive compulsive disorder it may be that ketamine is a wondrous find for them, and it is good that this drug is now regarded as a viable treatment alternative.