Why Klarisana?
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Find the reasons why you should break through mental chaos with us by your side.
A new ketamine treatment paradigm
Lingering mental health conditions have the power of setting people apart from their true identities and leading them into severe symptoms of desperation, exhaustion, and hopelessness. At Klarisana, we walk side by side with our patients through the transformational journey that allows them to reconnect with their sense of self and a more peaceful and balanced perception of the world around them.
Our methodology employs intramuscular (IM) ketamine instead of intravenous (IV) ketamine, which puts patients quickly under the psychedelic influence, allowing them more time to delve into the vibrant soul-searching experience and take the most meaningful insights out of it as possible.
With IM, patients are given an initial shot and a second shot fifteen minutes later; the experience takes off faster and gives the patient more time to explore and fewer side effects to deal with afterward. Throughout the ketamine sessions, patients are closely monitored in order to ensure that all safety protocols have been taken and to maximize the efficacy and safety of the treatment.
Over the years, we have also developed a clinical approach to the treatment that relies not only on the therapeutic properties of ketamine but also on comprehending and connecting with each patient’s story to better guide the profound transformative experience that follows.
Practice based on scientific evidence
We are fully committed to furthering our investigation into the medicinal potential of ketamine to perfect our scientific practices even more and come to a better understanding of the full specter of its effects in tackling mental illness.
As a company, we continue to invest in ketamine research and other psychedelic-related medicines and share those results with our communities as a means to clarify common misconceptions surrounding the efficacy of these substances and the legitimacy of their use for medical purposes.
Affordable rates and insurance coverage
We firmly believe in ketamine as a mental health treatment medicine with the power to induce a life-changing experience for so many people suffering from treatment-resistant mental conditions and chronic pain, and it has always been an essential part of our philosophy to make it as accessible as possible. As a result, we maintain the best rates for ketamine therapy in our region and accept many major insurance carriers for non-ketamine related services.
A committed and compassionate team
Trust, respect, and empathy are the cornerstones of the relationship our team develops with our patients. These values play a key role in what we do. Our staff understands the complexity of debilitating mental health conditions and own the necessary medical and human qualities to guide and help our patients persevere and break through psychological chaos.
A groundbreaking foundation
Founded in 2015 by Dr. Carl J. Bonnett, a war veteran whose vision of love and compassion gave shape and form to Klarisana, one of the country’s first-ever ketamine clinics.
To this day, Klarisana remains a leading provider of ketamine therapy services in Texas and Colorado, providing the most compassionate and professional approach in the field of mental health services.
Non-ketamine psychotherapy also available
We understand that for some people suffering from mental illness, whether for reasons of religious, cultural, or other nature, making the decision to engage in a treatment that recurs to the use of psychedelic substances is not something they might feel entirely comfortable with.
Nonetheless, the fact that those people need help in dealing with their mental imbalances remains unchanged. For that reason, we assembled a service line dedicated to serving these patients with non-ketamine psychotherapy sessions in order to provide them with the help and support they need to overcome their conditions in a way that feels more soothing to them.
Want to learn more about ketamine therapy?
Our rooms are decorated in order to convey sensations of relaxation, tranquility and peacefulness. Patients receive their IM treatments in privacy while under constant observation during the ketamine session. The provider performs an initial evaluation and physical exam and steps out of the room once the IM treatment has started. Most ketamine sessions last about one hour.
Our rooms are equipped with TVs so that patients can watch videos of nature scenes or aquatic scapes. They may also bring in their own DVD or cast to one of our Smart TVs. We strive to minimize distractions and interruptions during the ketamine treatment process in order to make the session a fluid and peaceful experience.
Yes. Ketamine has been used extensively in emergency departments, operating rooms, and military conflicts with a very safe track record. Ketamine causes very little depression in a patient’s respiratory drive, which is why it has been highly reputed as an anesthetic agent in the military and in developing countries.
Outpatient IM treatments at Klarisana are fundamentally different than the use of ketamine in an ER or operating room. The doses of ketamine are much lower than those used in a hospital setting. Patients are still conversant and very aware during the IM treatments. Ketamine is administered through injections and the sessions last up to two hours. The patients’ are under continuous visual observation by the clinical staff and their vitals are monitored at regular intervals to ensure they are maintained within safe parameters.
You will not stop breathing. Ketamine has a very reassuring safety profile. The most common side effect is mild nausea in some patients. We do offer anti-nausea medication prior to treatment. We feel that the alterations in perception with ketamine should not be categorized as side effects, once they are an integral part of the therapy.
There have been case reports of brief periods of apnea (no breathing) with a rapid push of a large amount of ketamine such as might be used to induce anesthesia in an operating room. However, with a low-dose administration at Klarisana, there is no respiratory depression. Our patients are responsive and able to talk throughout the session.
Ketamine is, in fact, used extensively in both human and veterinary medicine contexts. The reason why veterinarians use ketamine is that it generally does not suppress respiration. In other words, it does not make the patient stop breathing. This important quality of ketamine makes it not only desirable in veterinary medicine but also in human medicine, particularly in pediatrics.
Ketamine is the “go-to” medication for the sedation of children in emergency departments across the United States. In the same way, if a veterinarian has to do a procedure on a large animal like a horse, they would prefer to use a sedative agent that does not make the animal stop breathing. If a horse stops breathing, it poses huge logistical challenges for the veterinarian. Horses and humans share a great deal of the same anatomy and physiology.
The fact that a pharmaceutical agent can be useful in both human and veterinary medicine does not represent any kind of earth-shattering revelation. Penicillin, for instance, is also a medication used extensively in human and veterinary medicine.
Ketamine is extensively used in emergency medicine and, in fact, it is the “go-to” medication for procedural sedation in kids. It is routinely used in ER services across America every day in young children who require sedation for painful procedures such as facial lacerations and reduction of broken bones. We have a number of patients with mental health conditions and chronic pain who are teenagers. When we consider ketamine therapy for patients under the age of 18 we require approval of and close cooperation with the patient’s primary care and mental health provider.
Ketamine treatment is exclusively covered by Medicaid Colorado at Klarisana, but we also work with a number of private insurance programs that cover other Behavioral Health Services. Please visit our insurance coverage page to see an updated list of insurance carriers that we work with.
Klarisana also works with out-of-network benefits, which means that if we are not in-network with your carrier, but you have out-of-network benefits, Klarisana will file those claims out of courtesy so that our patients do not have to go through the trouble of filing for reimbursements. For services such as Psychotropic Therapy that do not have a CPT code, a small non-covered services fee will be applied. Contact Klarisana to find out more about insurance coverage and costs.
Ketamine is approved by the US Food & Drug Administration for use in humans as an anesthetic agent and as an analgesic agent to supplement low-potency medications such as nitrous oxide. The use of ketamine for treatment-resistant depression is considered “off-label” by the FDA. Once a drug is approved by the FDA for one indication, then clinicians may use that same medication for other indications if they feel that the evidence supports the practice.
Ketamine is off-label because no one has invested the millions of dollars necessary to go through the multi-phase process of getting ketamine “approved” by the FDA for these indications. The fact that ketamine is a generic medication means that it is unlikely that any company or organization will ever spend the money to get ketamine “FDA approved.” The issue of whether there is good evidence to support the use of ketamine for the indications for which Klarisana is using it is separate from the simple discussion of FDA approval.
There are many medications that are prescribed and administered every day that are off-label. For example, Compazine (prochlorperazine) is indicated for nausea but is frequently used to treat migraine headaches. A common misconception is that just because a medication is not “FDA approved” for a certain indication, it means the FDA has prohibited its use for that indication. If the FDA wanted to prevent the use of any medication, it would issue a “black box” warning; this is not the case for ketamine.