
This edition of Salina Sees You, brought to you by Drs. Cooper & Banninger, LLC Family Vision Care (1000 E. Cloud) presents:
Krista Wiss, who tells her story about finding her passion for mental health care, and starting one of the only clinical providers in Salina that uncovers and treats the root causes of mental health conditions.

By: NICOLAS FIERRO
Salina Post
Krista Wiss comes from Clay Center and started her own business in Salina that provides a functional approach to mental health care.
Wiss moved to Salina with 16 years of healthcare experience. Ten of those being a nurse and graduating nursing school, before going to Ohio where she worked as an in-patient psych nurse.
This is where she found her passion of how the brain and body functions together.
She then earned a Master's degree in nursing and became a Board Certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. Wiss founded Psynergy Mental Wellness in Salina this year, where she takes a functional approach to mental health care, meaning she uncovers and treats the root causes of mental health conditions.
Her clinic provides SPRAVATO® (esketamine), an FDA approved nasal spray for ages 18 and older, who suffer from treatment resistant depression, or major depressive disorder with suicidal ideations. Spravato is provided for patients, when two or more oral antidepressants have evidently not worked.
According to Wiss, Spravato works differently than oral antidepressants by acting on person's glutamate system. She explained the glutamate system is very abundant in neurotransmitters (“chemical messengers"), playing a key role in neuroplasticity and mood regulation.
Neuroplasticity, is the brain’s capacity to continue growing and evolving in response to life experiences, according to Psychology Today.
"Essentially, we can think of Spravato as like the 'Miracle Grow' for the brain," Wiss said. "It is very exciting."
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This edition of Salina Sees You is brought to you by Drs. Cooper & Banninger, LLC Family Vision Care (1000 E. Cloud). Call (785) 823-6391 or visit today, to make an appointment.
Transforming the brain
Wiss added throughout the process of neuroplasticity, it protects the brain and creates new synapses, which means it helps to transform the brain.
"By adjusting glutamate activity, Spravato helps 'reset' brain connections that have become disrupted by chronic depression," she said. "This can lead to meaningful improvements in mood and mental clarity often within weeks."
According to Spravato, after 8 treatments, over 50% of people have achieved clinical remission. Wiss sees patients taking Spravato for 2 times a week over the 1st month of treatment.
"So in one month, people have spent a lifetime taking oral antidepressants with no to partial relief, are clinical remission within a month (taking Spravato)," she said. "It's probably the most innovative thing we have in mental health right now."

Bringing Spravato to Salina
The Salina area is known to not have a mental health clinic like Wiss' that provides such treatment. She said her patients drive an hour, sometimes more to receive this kind of treatment.
"Residents of Salina and the surrounding area are driving an hour, sometimes more, for this treatment. For a treatment that includes a two hour observation period, this isn't sustainable," she said. "This treatment not only works, but does so in an expeditious way bringing rapid relief to those who may have had a lifetime of little to none."
Wiss shared some personal testimonies of patients she has treated.
"I have heard some things, that it is life changing," she said. "One person said, they have had a lifetime feeling like this and now they don't have to feel this way anymore. That alone is a reason to do it, even one time."
"By maintaining REMS certification, I can ensure patient's are treated not only with care and personalized treatment, but with the highest regard to safety," Wiss said. "I am beyond excited to bring this to Salina and I hope to help patients achieve lasting relief"
Wiss specializes in depression, anxiety, PTSD/trauma and ADHD. She also sees patients ages 6 and older.
To book an appointment or learn more about Psynergy Mental Wellness, click here.