 Serenity Mental Health Center in Sandy Springs is offering patients transcranial magnetic stimulation, a non-invasive treatment that uses magnetic fields to stimulate the brain.
They’ll also treat patients with ketamine to address treatment-resistant depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Tricia Pease with Serenity said the drug helps by encouraging rapid growth of new and beneficial neural pathways.
“Your neural pathways are failing and your brain’s defense is, for some unknown reason, to tell yourself you should die,” she said. “Terrible defense, honestly, but that’s what our brain does.”
Pease said that, in some people, the neural pathway growth can happen within hours, so ketamine can be an excellent tool in crisis intervention.
GPB’s Health Reporting is supported by Georgia Health Initiative
Georgia Health Initiative is a non-partisan, private foundation advancing innovative ideas to help improve the health of Georgians. Learn more at georgiahealthinitiative.org