Now accepting new patients
Now accepting new patients
Spravato is the brand name for esketamine, a prescription nasal spray that the FDA approved for adults with treatment resistant depression. It is a Schedule III controlled medication, so it is given only in a certified healthcare setting under the supervision of your provider. You do not take it home.
Spravato is FDA approved for two groups of adults. The first is people with treatment resistant depression, which means depression that has not responded to two or more oral antidepressants. The second is adults with major depressive disorder who are experiencing acute suicidal thoughts or behavior, where fast acting help matters. In both cases Spravato is used together with an oral antidepressant.
Traditional antidepressants mostly act on serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine. Esketamine works on a different system in the brain involving glutamate and NMDA receptors, which play a role in how nerve cells form new connections. By acting on this pathway, Spravato can lift depression symptoms for some people when the usual medications have not, and it can begin to help more quickly than many oral antidepressants.
Spravato is not a take home pill and it is not something you self administer. Because of how it works, you may feel temporary effects such as a sense of detachment, mild dizziness, or a change in how you perceive things during and shortly after your dose. That is why every session includes a monitoring period before you leave, and why you cannot drive for the rest of that day.
Spravato is provided through a careful safety program. You self spray under the guidance of our staff, then stay in our Benton office for about 2 hours so your blood pressure and how you are feeling can be monitored. You will need someone to drive you home, and you should not drive or operate machinery until the next day after a full night of sleep.
Start your free consultation
