Ketamine for PTSD
The flashbacks. The hypervigilance. The nervous system that never fully stands down. If therapy and medication haven't quieted your PTSD, ketamine offers a different way to help your brain step out of survival mode.
Your Body Is Still Protecting You
From Something That's Over
PTSD isn't weakness and it isn't "in your head" in the dismissive sense — it's a nervous system doing exactly what it learned to do during trauma, long after the danger has passed. The startle responses, intrusive memories, avoidance, sleeplessness, and irritability are symptoms of a brain locked into threat-detection mode.
Standard treatment — trauma-focused therapy and SSRIs — helps many people. But a substantial share of patients, including many veterans and first responders, don't get adequate relief from those first-line options. If you're one of them, you have not run out of road.
Quieting the Alarm, Restoring Flexibility
Ketamine modulates the glutamate/NMDA system and promotes neuroplasticity — the brain's capacity to form new connections and loosen entrenched patterns. In PTSD, where fear circuits have become rigid and overactive, that matters: research suggests ketamine can rapidly reduce symptom severity and may create a window in which the brain is more able to process trauma — which is one reason many patients pair ketamine treatment with ongoing trauma therapy.
Honest framing: Ketamine's use for PTSD is off-label and its evidence base is younger than for depression. Research is ongoing, results vary between individuals, and ketamine is a complement to, not a replacement for, trauma-focused care.
How We Treat PTSD at Desert Sands
PTSD treatment here begins with a careful evaluation of your trauma history, current symptoms, prior treatments, and 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.
Designed for patients who need to feel safe
We know that for someone with PTSD, a clinical environment can itself feel threatening. Every infusion happens in your own private room — no shared bays, no strangers — with a zero-gravity recliner, warm lighting, your choice of music, and continuous monitoring by staff who understand what hypervigilance feels like. A typical course is a series of infusions over two to three weeks at sub-anesthetic doses calibrated to you, with maintenance sessions based on your response. If you're working with a trauma therapist, we're glad to coordinate care with them.
Patient Selection
- Have PTSD that hasn't responded adequately to therapy and/or medication
- Are a veteran, first responder, or trauma survivor seeking another option
- Struggle with co-occurring depression alongside PTSD
- Are engaged in, or open to, ongoing trauma-focused care
- A history of psychosis or schizophrenia
- Uncontrolled high blood pressure or unstable heart disease
- Active, unevaluated substance-use concerns
- A strong history of dissociative episodes that hasn't been clinically reviewed — dissociation during infusion needs careful discussion in your evaluation
Outcomes, Honestly Stated
Many patients describe a quieting — intrusive thoughts losing their grip, sleep improving, the constant scanning easing. Some feel a shift after the first infusion or two; for others it builds across the series. Relief from a course of infusions is typically measured in weeks and can be extended with maintenance treatment, and some patients do not respond. We will tell you honestly what we're seeing.
Risks and side effects
During and shortly after infusion, patients may experience dissociation, elevated blood pressure or heart rate, nausea, dizziness, or drowsiness. For trauma survivors specifically, the dissociative experience deserves a candid conversation beforehand — some patients find it neutral or even meaningful, while others find it uncomfortable, and dosing can be adjusted 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.
PTSD Treatment FAQ
Will I have to talk about my trauma?
No. Your evaluation covers your symptoms and history at whatever level of detail you're comfortable with. Ketamine treatment itself doesn't require recounting traumatic events — that work, if you choose to do it, belongs with your therapist, and many patients find it more approachable after treatment.
Do you work with veterans?
Yes. Many of our PTSD patients are veterans and first responders. We're honored to serve them, and we'll coordinate with VA or private providers whenever you'd like.
Can ketamine replace my trauma therapy?
We don't recommend that. The strongest results come from combining ketamine's neurobiological effects with trauma-focused therapy — the medication can open a window; therapy helps you walk through it.
You Don't Have to Stay
On High Alert
Your free consultation is a private, no-pressure conversation about your situation 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 PTSD 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 (veterans: press 1).