Spravato™ Q & A

What is Spravato?

Spravato is a treatment for patients with major depressive disorder that isn’t improving with other therapies. To ease severe depression symptoms, the Guadalupe Psychiatric and Mental Health Services team may prescribe Spravato with antidepressant medications.

Spravato is a spray that goes in your nose rather than a pill you swallow. You need to visit Guadalupe Psychiatric and Mental Health Services in person to take your Spravato; afterward, the team monitors you for several hours so they can act if you experience any adverse reactions.

You can go home once all checks out well. You should have someone drive you because you might feel drowsy, and your responses are likely to be slower.

How does Spravato work?

The active ingredient in Spravato is esketamine. This is an FDA-approved form of ketamine, a powerful anesthetic drug.

Intravenous (IV) ketamine therapy has proven beneficial for treating depression. Treatment involves regular visits of 40-60 minutes, during which the medication drips directly into your bloodstream through a cannula (flexible tube) in an arm vein. Spravato intranasal spray offers a convenient, effective alternative to repeated ketamine IV infusions.

Why might I need Spravato treatment?

Spravato might help you if you suffer from major depressive disorder (depression) and don’t improve despite treatment.

Depression causes a continual low mood with persistent hopelessness, sadness, self-loathing, and other negative emotions. Patients with major depressive disorder struggle to function, making work challenging and affecting their ability to care for themselves properly. Some people with depression become suicidal.

Psychotherapy and antidepressant medication often help reduce depression symptoms. The Guadalupe Psychiatric and Mental Health Services team offers expert interpersonal psychotherapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) alongside medication for people with depression, and most find it highly effective.

However, some patients fail to improve even after lengthy treatment. This problem is known as treatment-resistant depression, for which your provider might recommend Spravato or another innovative treatment — transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).

How many Spravato treatments will I need?

You should commit to a series of Spravato treatments for the best results. A typical course of treatment involves two sessions a week for the first four weeks, then one treatment weekly for a month. After this, you typically take Spravato once every week or two weeks.

Call Guadalupe Psychiatric and Mental Health Services today or book an appointment online to discover more about Spravato and how it could help with your treatment-resistant depression.