Since the opening of her clinic in Arlington earlier this year, Dr. Ginger Williams has touted the benefits of low-dose ketamine, building awareness to the treatment while building her new business.

Williams, owner of Revive Ketamine and IV Infusion Clinic, says the approach helps patients deal with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety and some chronic pain syndromes.

“It’s amazing to watch patients come in here and they’ve tried everything. They’ve tried multiple medications, and they’re not getting the relief,” Williams said. “To see them get the (ketamine) treatment and walk out of here a different person after just one treatment has been phenomenal.”

Developed in the 1960s and used for operating on soldiers during the Vietnam War, ketamine is an anesthetic drug that blocks pain and also affects receptors in the brain associated with depression, according to webMD. Major depression affects more than 16 million adults in the United States every year, with nearly a third not finding relief from antidepressants and other traditional treatments, webMD states. Studies found that ketamine can have long-lasting benefits against depression, even though the drug stays in the body only a short time.

Williams, an advanced practice nurse anesthesiologist from Atoka, has worked in the medical field for 28 years and practiced anesthesia for nearly 17 years. She administers ketamine (which is also used as an animal tranquilizer) daily in the form of anesthesia.

One reason she started her own business is that her son is in the U.S. Army, and many military personnel and their family members suffer from PTSD. She also took an anesthesia course that highlighted ketamine’s help with mental illness.

“I’ve noticed that nine of 10 patients that come in here ... have either anxiety or depression in some form,” said Williams. “I thought, ‘well this is what I do, and I should be able to help people.’ There aren’t many places like this locally where people can go, so I wanted to bring this here and offer it to as many people as I can.”

She stresses that she is not a mental health provider and patients receiving ketamine treatments must have a referral from whomever is treating them.

Nurse practitioner Dr. Deanna Speight, who owns Speight Family Medicine, took her teenage daughter, who suffered from depression and anxiety, to Revive over the summer.

“It worked wonderfully and was a great experience. She’s a different kid now,” said Speight, who refers some of her patients with anxiety and depression to Williams’ clinic.

Revive also offers intravenous vitamin hydration services that help combat hangovers, migraines, heavy training workouts, and fatigue – with the most popular being the Myers’ Cocktail, as well as B12 injections.

Williams said she chose Arlington for her business because it is only 20 minutes from her home in Atoka. Her 1,350-square-foot clinic at 6220 Greenlee features two private infusion rooms for ketamine patients as well as a room for vitamin infusions.

“It’s really busy here in Arlington, and I just thought it would be a great location where I could serve a lot more people,” Williams said.