The term burnout was first coined by Dr. Herbert Freundenberger in the 1970s and is today recognized as a valid medical condition with a constellation of symptoms that may include many of those found in other illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Burnout now even has its own place in the latest international medical classification guide. According to research data, in the USA and Europe, where the problem has been studied since the 1970s, every third person faces professional burnout.
Burnout occurs after prolonged exposure to chronic stress and results in:
• physical and emotional exhaustion
• cynicism and detachment
• Feelings of inefficiency and lack of achievement.
• restlessness, apathy and hopelessness, loss of energy, increased irritability, difficulty concentrating and sleep disturbances.
Burnout syndrome is often accompanied by chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), which is also a consequence of chronic stress. It can manifest itself as progressive fatigue, decreased performance; muscle weakness and muscle pain; prolonged low-grade fever (a slight increase in body temperature), sore throat, poor tolerance of previously habitual loads; sleep disorders; headache; forgetfulness; irritability; decreased mental activity and ability to concentrate,
Emotional burnout is the result of not only accumulated fatigue, but also a discrepancy between expectations from work results and actual reality, when professional activity loses its subjective meaning. As a result of chronic stress, these symptoms may also indicate the initial stage chronic cerebrovascular insufficiencyleading to encephalopathy and early dementia.
Researchers are currently considering ketamine infusions as an effective treatment for burnout and chronic fatigue. Moreover, they even consider it an “antidote” that can prevent the development of severe burnout complications.
According to Dr. Gerald Grass, director of the Ketamine Institute, “We see many executives who initially come to us with the traditional diagnosis of anxiety or depression, but when we listen to what they tell us, it becomes clear that they are suffering from a burnout syndrome due to for chronic work-related stress." Many of these patients are in such distress that they cannot function optimally and are often at risk of leaving their jobs or being fired. And they often experience difficulties not only at work, but also at home, their families suffer too.
Ketamine infusions, given at the correct dose, in combination with other anti-stress therapies (primarily program "Neurohelp") may be effective in relieving these symptoms. Often, after just one session of ketamine therapy, patients notice a rapid improvement in mood and a decrease in anxiety levels. Many report an improvement in concentration and ability to focus, a reduction in fatigue, and they become much more efficient at work and at home. In fact, says Dr. Grass, recent research has shown that ketamine infusion treatment can not only treat the symptoms of burnout and PTSD, but can even prevent it from occurring.
How does ketamine work for burnout and CFS?
People with these symptoms are often prescribed antidepressants or anxiety medications. Typically, patients need to take them for a few weeks or a few months before they begin to take effect, and only about 38% feel any improvement with treatment. These drugs must build up in your body to work. Ketamine works much faster, with effects on depression, anxiety, and PTSD within hours of infusion, and is about 75% effective—twice as good as traditional drugs or treatments.
Researchers haven't yet determined exactly how ketamine alleviates symptoms of burnout and CFS. One version is that it "reboots" the nervous system, causing the formation of new connections between brain cells that are involved in the mechanisms of emotions.
"Recent evidence suggests that intravenous ketamine may be the most important breakthrough in antidepressant research in decades," said Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the US National Institute of Mental Health.
In the center "Expio", using our own developments and many years of experience of the neurological departments of the Research Institute of Gerontology of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, on the basis of which we were organized, an integrative multimodal program for restoring the psyche and brain in chronic fatigue, burnout, encephalopathy, accelerated aging, mental disorders, and others has been developed consequences of chronic stress.
The program is offered in two versions of the five-day block:
Optimal:
– a session of psychotherapy (if necessary, hypnotherapy) to relieve stress and teach self-regulation skills,
– 5 sessions of transcranial electrical stimulation and vagus nerve stimulation to restore the correct electrical activity of the brain and relieve overexcitation in the peripheral nervous system,
– one session of ketamine psychotherapy to eliminate deep mental stress and activate neurogenesis in the hippocampus,
– one session of sodium oxybutyrate therapy to “reboot the brain” and reduce tension in the body,
– “Neurohelp” drip (complex of neurometabolic and neuroprotective drugs),
- prescribing tablets.
The cost of one block is 11000 UAH.
Minimum:
– a session of psychotherapy (if necessary, hypnotherapy) to relieve stress and teach self-regulation skills,
– one session of ketamine therapy to eliminate deep mental stress and activate neurogenesis in the hippocampus,
- one session of sodium oxybutyrate therapy to "reboot the brain" and reduce tension in the body.
The cost of one block is 6500 UAH.
The course is recommended for 2 - 3 weekly blocks, depending on the severity of the condition.
Description of applied methods.
Chronic stress and its consequences and complications