Why Your Patient Feels Tired After A Ketamine Treatment
In this blog, we explore why patients may feel tired after ketamine infusion, provide a framework for practitioners to explain this fatigue, and overview research on ketamine's energizing effects.
As a ketamine doctor, a common question you’ll likely hear about your patient’s feeling tired after a ketamine session.
Why Am I Tired After My Ketamine Treatment, Doctor?
In addition to ensuring your patient's physical and emotional safety before, during, and after their ketamine infusion, anticipating their questions and concerns is equally important. A common question you'll likely hear (that we frequently receive) is about feeling tired or fatigued after a ketamine session. Now, as healthcare professionals, the reasons may seem obvious - you're administering an anesthetic that can cause drowsiness and grogginess, especially for those accustomed to PACU care. However, browsing social media reveals many patients inquiring about post-ketamine fatigue! So, in this blog, we'll explore this topic to provide a framework for explaining this side effect to patients and overview what research says about it.
It’s important to remind your patients that feeling tired after a ketamine journey is normal, especially after profound experiences.
Tired After a Ketamine Journey
While not every patient will feel fatigued after ketamine, some may experience tiredness and be confused by this. They may have heard about ketamine's energizing effects from studies (which we'll discuss shortly) and wonder why they don't feel similarly invigorated. Patients may wrongly assume they did something incorrectly, were unprepared, or that ketamine is not right for them. Before writing off ketamine altogether, it's important to provide perspective on their experience.
First, remind them that ketamine is an anesthetic that can naturally cause grogginess post-treatment - hence why you advise against driving or operating machinery afterwards. Beyond standard discharge guidance, the biochemical explanation involves the psychedelic, non-ordinary state of consciousness triggered - in other words, the journey they embarked on.
In our experience administering ketamine, patients often report reconnecting with themselves and losing their sense of time and space during the experience. As one patient described, "It felt like I lived an entire lifetime." Like the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, The Inner Light, where Captain Picard experiences a whole life in minutes, some patients see and feel so much that it can be mentally and physically draining. Others may feel transported to new worlds or dimensions, tapping into the multiverse - think the Marvel MCU multiverse! Have you ever felt tired after a long trip? Well, that can be how it feels for your patient.
Learn more about the types of experiences your patients can have at The 4 Types of Non-Ordinary Experiences Your Ketamine Patients Can Have blog post.
It’s a common trend that patients may reconnect with their authentic selves and feel more energized after feelings of fatigue from the infusion.
After Ketamine: Reconnected with Their Body
Another common trend is patients reconnecting with their authentic selves and their bodies. Just as they can become disconnected from their emotions, patients can override fatigue signals their body sends. Whether due to biological receptor resets or perspective shifts during the ketamine experience, some patients gain greater awareness of their body's messages. They are now better able to recognize how tired they are and how much in need they are of self-care, rest, and recovery.
For some patients, fatigue may linger for 24-48 hours post-treatment before progressively declining as energy levels rise. Of course, this varies based on each patient's unique medical history, ketamine dose, and current life circumstances. Interestingly, once the fatigue fades, patients may feel even more energized than before!
Research shows that although patients may feel physically tired right after the infusion, they may feel more inspired and motivated.
What The Research Shows: Ketamine Is Energizing For Some
So what does the research show? Let's go over a couple studies. In An Assessment of the Anti-Fatigue Effects of Ketamine from a Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Crossover Study in Bipolar Disorder, participants receiving ketamine infusions reported less fatigue compared to those receiving a placebo. This double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study also hypothesized this anti-fatigue effect was related to ketamine's impact on glutamate receptors, as ketamine is an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonist.
Another study by Saligan et al showed ketamine's anti-fatigue benefits for depression are associated with improving motivation and depressed mood. Elevated mood and motivation can translate to feeling more energized. We've observed this with our patients - they may feel tired for 24-48 hours post-infusion, but then share an improved outlook that motivates them. Some even incorporate exercise or movement into their integration.
Perhaps you have experienced it yourself - when you are in a good mood, you can feel energized and inspired even if physically tired. We can personally attest to this. After attending the MAPS Psychedelic Science 2023 Conference in Denver, despite physical exhaustion from long days, we felt energized and excited by all we learned and the connections made!
Thorough communication with your patients on what to expect after their ketamine infusion is essential to manage expectations.
Ketamine Specialists Anticipate & Answer Your Patients' Questions
Whether or not fatigue arises, proactively addressing patients' questions is key. Communicating what they can expect during and after ketamine is just as vital as ensuring physical safety. With wide variation in ketamine clinics' approaches, many patients lack clarity on what to make of their psychedelic experience or potential side effects. Do your patients and yourself a favor by thoroughly explaining what to expect after their ketamine infusion.
Prepare them by telling them that feeling more tired than usual can occur. Explain it’s a natural side effect given ketamine’s anesthetic properties, and the mental journey can also be draining. Share with them that while research shows ketamine’s energizing effects, people respond differently – fatigue may resolve within 48 hours for some. Once any tiredness fades, they feel greater motivation and inspiration – support integrating their insights. And remind them to care for their body with rest, nutrition, hydration, movement, and self-care. By providing education and support around their subjective experience, you’ll help patients understand post-ketamine fatigue is typical but mood-boosting effects often follow. Your guidance will enable them to listen to their body and mind during this integration process.
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Related Questions:
How long can the fatigue last for patients after a ketamine infusion?
Fatigue or a sense of tiredness can last from 24-48 hours after the ketamine infusion treatment. The range varies based on their medical history, dose, and factors in their life that can add stress, such as family, work, recent trauma, etc.
What are some things I can suggest to my patient to do after the infusion to manage their fatigue and integration?
Along with your discharge instructions, you can suggest self-care promoting activities such as taking a nap, meditating, journaling, and being in nature. You may also consider advising them to wait to partake in activities that may exhaust them, such as going to busy places (like shopping or the movie theaters), or over-exerting themselves. We believe the best guide is the patient’s intuition. So encourage them to listen to their gut!
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4 Things to Let Your Ketamine Patients Know To Expect During An Infusion
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6 Things To Tell Your Ketamine Patients To Expect After Their Infusion
As ketamine doctors, not only do we need to focus on the actual treatment of our patients, but what they do post-infusion is crucial as well. Read our blog post to learn about what you can tell your patients to expect after their infusion.
The Importance of Set & Setting During Ketamine Infusions
Did you know that you shouldn't rely on ketamine infusions alone to treat your patients? Both you and your patient also have a role to play. And that is to create the right "set and setting" in order to make the most of the ketamine infusion.
In this blog, we explore why patients may feel tired after ketamine infusion, provide a framework for practitioners to explain this fatigue, and overview research on ketamine's energizing effects.
Explore the professional and personal growth in opening a ketamine clinic with Dr. Leslie Koenig in this interview excerpt from our podcast.