Ketamine for Clinical Anxiety
When the tightness in your chest never fully releases and the worry runs even on good days — and medication hasn't changed that — you deserve more than "managing symptoms."
Functioning on the Outside.
Bracing on the Inside.
Clinical anxiety is more than stress. It's a baseline of dread that colors ordinary days — the racing thoughts at night, the physical tension you stopped noticing because it never leaves, the constant low-grade forecast that something is about to go wrong. Many people with anxiety disorders have tried SSRIs, benzodiazepines, and therapy, and found only partial relief — or side effects and dependence concerns that created problems of their own.
Interrupting the Worry Loop
Anxiety disorders involve overactive threat circuits and rigid, repetitive patterns of thought. Ketamine acts on the glutamate system and promotes neuroplasticity, which researchers believe helps loosen those entrenched loops — reducing the intensity of anxious rumination and allowing calmer patterns to form. Unlike benzodiazepines, ketamine is not taken daily and is not sedating you through the day; it's a periodic treatment administered under medical supervision.
Honest framing: Ketamine's use for anxiety is off-label, and the evidence base for anxiety disorders is younger and smaller than for depression. Clinical studies — including NIH-supported research on anxiety-related conditions — have reported rapid reductions in anxiety symptoms in many patients, particularly where anxiety co-occurs with depression. Research is ongoing, and results vary between individuals. We'll be honest in your evaluation about how strong the evidence is for your specific situation.
How We Treat Anxiety at Desert Sands
Your evaluation reviews your anxiety history, prior medications and therapy, co-occurring conditions like depression, and your medical background. Treatment protocols are physician-directed and supported by experienced clinical staff under the medical oversight of board-certified anesthesiologist Dr. Eric Evans, whose more than 30 years of clinical experience help guide the highest standards of patient safety, comfort, and care.
An environment built for anxious patients
We designed the treatment experience around exactly the kind of patient this page is written for. Your infusion happens in a private room — never a shared bay — in a zero-gravity recliner with calming music or visuals, and a clinical team that explains every step before it happens. A typical course is a series of infusions over two to three weeks at sub-anesthetic doses calibrated to you, with maintenance based on your individual response.
Patient Selection
- Have generalized or severe anxiety that hasn't responded adequately to medication and therapy
- Have anxiety co-occurring with depression — where the evidence is strongest
- Want to reduce reliance on daily benzodiazepines (in coordination with your prescriber)
- Are engaged in, or open to, ongoing mental-health care
- Uncontrolled high blood pressure or unstable cardiovascular disease
- A history of psychosis or schizophrenia
- Active substance-use concerns that haven't been evaluated
- Anxiety that hasn't yet had an adequate trial of first-line treatment — we may recommend starting there
Outcomes, Honestly Stated
Patients who respond often describe the volume of worry turning down — sleeping through the night, sitting still without bracing, being present in conversations instead of monitoring for threat. Benefit typically builds across the initial series and can be maintained with periodic infusions. Some patients respond partially and some don't respond; anxiety outcomes are somewhat less predictable than depression outcomes, and we'll tell you plainly what we're observing.
Risks and side effects
During and shortly after infusion, patients may experience dissociation, elevated blood pressure or heart rate, nausea, dizziness, or drowsiness — and for some anxious patients, the dissociative sensation itself can be briefly uncomfortable, which is why we start conservatively and can adjust dosing in real time. These effects are typically temporary and most resolve within about two hours. Every patient is screened before treatment and monitored throughout, and you'll need a ride home after each session.
What the Research Shows
NIH intramural research and subsequent clinical studies have examined ketamine across anxiety-related conditions, reporting rapid symptom reduction in many patients — with the most robust findings in patients whose anxiety accompanies treatment-resistant depression. Reviews consistently describe the anxiety evidence as promising and still maturing.
Anxiety Treatment FAQ
Is ketamine like a benzodiazepine?
No. Benzodiazepines are daily or as-needed sedatives that act on GABA receptors and carry dependence risk with ongoing use. Ketamine is a periodic infusion administered in a medically supervised setting with careful screening and monitoring, working through an entirely different mechanism aimed at changing the underlying patterns rather than sedating you through them.
Will it make my anxiety worse during the infusion?
Most patients find the experience deeply relaxing, but a minority notice transient anxiety or dissociative discomfort — especially early on. We screen for this, start conservatively, monitor you continuously, and can adjust the infusion in real time. You are never alone in the room.
Can I keep taking my current anxiety medication?
Usually yes — your evaluation reviews everything you take, and a few medications can blunt ketamine's effect or need timing adjustments. Never change psychiatric medications without your prescriber.
Imagine a Day Where Your Mind
Isn't Bracing
Your free consultation is a calm, no-pressure conversation about your history and whether ketamine is a reasonable option for you.
Request Your Free ConsultationCall (435) 522-5190This page is for educational purposes and is not medical advice. Ketamine is FDA-approved as an anesthetic; its use for anxiety is off-label and research is ongoing. Individual results vary and are not guaranteed. Reading this page or submitting a form does not create a provider-patient relationship. If you are experiencing a mental-health emergency, call 911 or call/text 988.