Chronic pain isn't just "regular pain that lasts longer." It's a neurological condition where your nervous system has been fundamentally rewired to amplify pain signals. IV ketamine targets this rewiring at its source.
Chronic pain is isolating in a way that's almost impossible to explain to someone who hasn't experienced it. It doesn't just hurt. It restructures your entire relationship with your body, your energy, and your future.
The original injury or condition resolved, but the pain didn't. Doctors can't find a structural cause anymore. The pain has outlived its source.
Opioids helped initially but required escalating doses, or the side effects became their own problem. You're caught between pain and dependency.
Your pain levels fluctuate unpredictably. Good days and bad days with no clear pattern, making it impossible to plan or commit to anything.
Light touch, temperature changes, or normal movement triggers disproportionate pain. Things that shouldn't hurt, hurt.
Fatigue has become inseparable from pain. Your nervous system is exhausted from processing signals it should be filtering out.
You've been told it's "all in your head" or to "manage it with mindfulness." You're not making this up. Your nervous system is genuinely malfunctioning.
Chronic pain involves a process called central sensitization. Your spinal cord and brain have amplified their pain processing circuits, turning up the volume on signals that should be filtered out. This is mediated primarily by NMDA receptors — the same receptors ketamine targets.
When NMDA receptors in pain pathways become chronically activated, they trigger a "wind-up" phenomenon: each pain signal makes the system more sensitive to the next one. This is why chronic pain gets worse over time and why conditions like fibromyalgia, CRPS, and neuropathic pain are so difficult to treat.
Ketamine blocks NMDA receptors directly, interrupting the wind-up cycle. It also has anti-inflammatory effects on glial cells — the brain's immune cells that become chronically activated in persistent pain states and drive neuroinflammation.
For conditions like CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome), ketamine infusion protocols have shown 50–80% pain reduction in clinical studies. It's also being used effectively for neuropathic pain, migraine disorders, and fibromyalgia — conditions where the underlying problem is neural, not structural.
Marla Peterson has advanced training in pain protocols and over 20 years of anesthesia experience. Chronic pain patients require precise dose calibration and real-time adjustment — the kind of clinical judgment that comes from managing complex cases in operating rooms across Nashville. This is not a one-size-fits-all infusion.
Chronic pain had narrowed my life in ways I couldn't explain to anyone. After starting treatment at MCK, I got pieces of my life back that I thought were gone permanently.Verified PatientChronic Pain • Neuropathy
Every session is administered and monitored by our anesthesia team — the same professionals managing airways in operating rooms across Nashville. Hospital-grade monitoring tracks your heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation throughout.
You'll settle into a private treatment suite designed to feel nothing like a clinic. Weighted blanket, eye mask, curated music. Your provider calibrates your dose in real time based on how you're responding — not a template.
Most patients begin with an initial series of infusions. Your provider builds your protocol around your response, adjusting as needed. There's no one-size-fits-all schedule. The goal is meaningful, lasting change — not dependency on a treatment.
Ketamine works through a completely different mechanism than SSRIs and SNRIs. In most cases, you can continue your current medications during treatment. Certain medications (particularly MAOIs and high-dose benzodiazepines) may require adjustment — we'll review your full medication list during your initial conversation.
If chronic pain has become your baseline and conventional treatments have reached their limit, a conversation about IV ketamine is the next step.
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