A 2024 comprehensive review found SGB efficacy for PTSD symptoms ranges from 70–83% of treated patients achieving clinically significant positive outcomes across the full range of existing studies
Stellate Ganglion Block in Friendswood, TX: Rapid Relief for PTSD, Anxiety, Trauma, and Long COVID
Friendswood is the kind of city that takes care of itself — founded by Quakers in 1895, named one of CNN/Money’s “Best Places to Live,” shaped by the NASA/JSC community that built nearby Clear Lake, and home to one of the most civically engaged, health-conscious populations in the Houston metro. When the nervous system gets stuck — whether from trauma, PTSD, chronic anxiety, or the post-viral autonomic dysfunction that has affected millions following COVID-19 — stellate ganglion block addresses the underlying biology at the source. Dr. Ho, board-certified anesthesiologist and former pediatrician, performs this ultrasound-guided procedure at Catalyst Health & Wellness, serving Friendswood and patients from Webster, Pearland, League City, Clear Lake, and the I-45 south corridor. Three Houston locations, open 5am–9pm, seven days a week.
Friendswood TX Reset Your Nervous System
Friendswood’s proximity to Johnson Space Center has long attracted scientists and engineers accustomed to diagnosing problems methodically and applying the right solution. If you’re living with PTSD, anxiety, or the persistent fog and fatigue of Long COVID and haven’t found adequate relief through conventional care, the problem isn’t your persistence. It’s that conventional approaches are working from the wrong direction — addressing symptoms neurologically from the top down while the underlying autonomic dysregulation continues unchallenged from the bottom up.
Stellate ganglion block works from the bottom up. A 2024 retrospective chart review published in Autonomic Neuroscience: Basic and Clinical — among the first peer-reviewed studies quantifying SGB’s effects on Long COVID symptoms using standardized patient-reported outcome measures — confirmed what earlier case series had suggested: bilateral sequential SGB reduces long COVID symptoms in patients with post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2, with the mechanism hypothesized to involve resetting the “sympathetic/parasympathetic balance of the autonomic nervous system” after COVID-induced dysautonomia. Brain fog, fatigue, and autonomic dysfunction — symptoms that share the same biological substrate as PTSD and anxiety — showed measurable improvement. The connecting thread across all of these conditions is the same overactivated sympathetic nervous system, and the stellate ganglion is its most precisely accessible reset point.
What is Stellate Ganglion Block?
The stellate ganglion is a cluster of sympathetic nerves at the base of the neck — formed by the fusion of the inferior cervical and first thoracic ganglia in approximately 80% of the population — positioned anterior to the seventh cervical vertebra. It relays sympathetic signals from the brain’s central autonomic network to the head, neck, upper body, heart, lungs, thyroid, and pineal glands. Its connections extend to the hypothalamus, amygdala, prefrontal cortex, and insular cortex — structures central to threat detection, emotional regulation, temperature control, and autonomic homeostasis.
Research consistently shows powerful results:
What Our Patients Say
How Stellate Ganglion Block Works
Understanding SGB's mechanism in both PTSD/anxiety and long COVID helps explain why this single anatomical intervention can address conditions that conventional medicine treats as entirely separate.
Resetting the Sympathetic Nervous System
The stellate ganglion is the accessible anatomical junction of the cervical sympathetic chain — the pathway through which the brain's central autonomic network transmits sympathetic activation signals to the head, neck, upper body, and thoracic organs. In PTSD and anxiety, trauma-induced elevation of nerve growth factor drives sympathetic nerve sprouting, elevates norepinephrine, and maintains the amygdala in chronic hyperarousal. In long COVID / PASC, the COVID infection triggers what researchers describe as "aberrant network adaptation to sympathetic/parasympathetic imbalance" that becomes self-sustaining after the infection resolves — a "persistent dysautonomia similar to that seen in complex regional pain syndrome."
Both mechanisms produce the same downstream failure: a sympathetic nervous system that's stuck in a state of hyperactivity it cannot exit on its own. SGB temporarily interrupts the sympathetic signal at the stellate ganglion — the most anatomically accessible point in the cervical sympathetic chain — allowing the regional autonomic nervous system to reset. The 2024 Autonomic Neuroscience review describes this as allowing "the body-brain circuit" to rebalance — a phrase that captures both the immediacy of what patients feel (the physical release during and after the procedure) and the persistence of the benefit that follows.
Reducing Brain Inflammation and Hyperactivity
Beyond the sympathetic reset, SGB produces downstream effects in the amygdala, hypothalamus, and prefrontal cortex — structures that receive input through the stellate ganglion's sympathetic pathway. In PTSD, measurable reductions in amygdala hyperactivity following SGB have been documented through neuroimaging. In long COVID, the hypothesis is that COVID-induced neuroinflammation in the autonomic network maintains a state of dysregulated sympathetic tone; SGB's anti-inflammatory properties and direct sympatholytic effect interrupt this maintenance mechanism, giving the brain's autonomic regulation centers the opportunity to re-establish normal parasympathetic/sympathetic balance.
For Friendswood patients who've spent years asking specialists — cardiologists, neurologists, infectious disease physicians, psychiatrists — to address what is ultimately the same overactivated autonomic system, this convergence around a single anatomical target offers something those specialist siloes couldn't: a direct intervention on the shared biological mechanism itself.
Conditions We Treat with Stellate Ganglion Block in Friendswood
SGB addresses sympathetic nervous system dysregulation across a range of conditions. At Catalyst Health & Wellness, we offer SGB for:
PTSD
Rapid relief from hyperarousal, hypervigilance, and trauma symptoms
Read MoreAnxiety Disorders
Reducing the physical manifestations of severe anxiety
Read MorePanic Disorder
Calming the fight-or-flight response that drives panic attacks
Read MoreCombat-Related Trauma
Extensively studied in military populations with strong results
Read MoreComplex Trauma
Addressing symptoms from prolonged or repeated traumatic experiences
Read MoreTrauma with Physical Symptoms
Especially effective when anxiety manifests physically
Read MoreSGB integrates powerfully with Catalyst's other treatments. Many Cinco Ranch patients find that SGB's physiological reset makes ketamine therapy, Spravato, or TMS significantly more effective than prior attempts.
Your Stellate Ganglion Block Journey at Catalyst Health & Wellness
Every step is designed for clarity, clinical rigor, and genuine accessibility for Friendswood patients with demanding professional and personal schedules.
Step 1: Free Phone Consultation
No cost, no commitment. A clinical team member discusses your symptoms, treatment history — including long COVID if applicable — and what you’re hoping to change. You receive an honest assessment of whether SGB is clinically appropriate, including for PASC presentations.
Step 2: Medical Evaluation
Dr. Ho conducts a thorough pre-procedure evaluation: medical history, current medications, prior procedures, and contraindication review. Every question is addressed before any commitment is made.
Step 3: Day of Procedure
Budget two to three hours at the clinic. Arrange transportation — post-procedure driving isn’t advisable. Comfortable clothing with an accessible collar area. Normal eating unless instructed otherwise.
Step 4: The SGB Procedure
Dr. Ho uses real-time ultrasound imaging to visualize the stellate ganglion and surrounding anatomy before needle placement. Skin is numbed first. The anesthetic is delivered under continuous imaging guidance. The injection takes approximately 15–20 minutes. Warmth, slight hoarseness, or a sense of physical release during the procedure confirm the block is working.
Step 5: Recovery & Observation
One to two hours of monitored recovery follows. Temporary Horner syndrome effects — drooping eyelid, hoarseness, warmth on the treated side — indicate successful stellate ganglion interruption and resolve within a few hours. Our team remains present throughout.
Step 6: Assessing Response & Follow-Up
Changes typically emerge within hours to days. Our team follows up to track response and discuss next steps: a second procedure two weeks later, maintenance scheduling, or complementary treatment options at Catalyst. For long COVID presentations, the 2025 Boston cohort study noted that patients underwent an average of three SGB injections, with variability in response duration — individual protocols are adjusted accordingly.
The Science Behind Stellate Ganglion Block
A systematic review published in Chronic Stress examined 17 published studies on SGB for psychiatric disorders, finding preliminary evidence supporting feasibility for treating sympathetic nervous system dysregulation conditions. Improvements were observed within 5 minutes and lasted one month or longer.
The 2020 randomized controlled trial in JAMA Psychiatry enrolled 113 active-duty service members across three military hospitals. Two SGBs two weeks apart produced a mean PTSD symptom reduction of −12.6 points versus −6.1 for sham — establishing Level 1B clinical evidence for PTSD, the highest standard yet achieved for this procedure.
The 2024 retrospective chart review published in Autonomic Neuroscience: Basic and Clinical by Duricka and Liu studied patients with long COVID / PASC who underwent sequential bilateral SGB. Using standardized patient-reported outcome measures, the study confirmed that SGB reduces long COVID symptoms including brain fog, fatigue, and autonomic dysfunction — with the proposed mechanism being reset of the “sympathetic/parasympathetic balance” that COVID-induced dysautonomia has disrupted. The study frames long COVID as “a subtler form of dysautonomia” that is “responsive to SGB,” positioning the procedure as one of the few direct interventions on the autonomic dysfunction underlying PASC symptomatology.
Key research findings:
- The 2024 Autonomic Neuroscience chart review confirms SGB reduces long COVID / PASC symptoms including brain fog, fatigue, and autonomic dysfunction through the same sympathetic reset mechanism as PTSD treatment
- A 2023 Cureus cohort study of 41 long COVID patients found 86% experienced reduced symptom burden following SGB — including 77% fatigue improvement and 80% brain fog improvement
- The shared mechanism — aberrant sympathetic hyperactivity maintaining both PTSD/anxiety and long COVID dysautonomia — means SGB addresses conditions that conventional medicine treats in separate siloes
- The 2020 JAMA Psychiatry RCT established Level 1B evidence for SGB in PTSD; the growing PASC evidence represents the most recent expansion of SGB’s documented clinical applications
Why Choose Catalyst Health & Wellness for Stellate Ganglion Block in Friendswood
01
Led by Dr. Ho – Anesthesiology Expertise
Stellate ganglion block requires nerve block anatomy knowledge, ultrasound guidance proficiency, and the clinical judgment to manage anesthetic delivery adjacent to major cervical vascular structures. Dr. Ho's board certification in anesthesiology covers those skills at their foundation. For Friendswood's scientifically literate, health-engaged population — accustomed to evaluating providers on credentials and evidence — that background is the appropriate standard. His former career as a pediatrician ensures clinical precision is paired with genuine attentiveness to how care feels from the patient's perspective.
02
Ultrasound-Guided Precision
Every SGB at Catalyst uses real-time ultrasound imaging. The 2024 Autonomic Neuroscience chart review specifically used “sequential bilateral stellate ganglion blockade” with ultrasound guidance — the standard the most rigorous published studies have consistently used. This is not an option at Catalyst — it is the only approach Dr. Ho uses.
03
Whole-Person Approach
Many Friendswood patients are managing complex overlapping presentations: pre-existing PTSD or anxiety that long COVID has worsened, or post-COVID autonomic dysfunction that has produced anxiety and trauma-like symptoms for the first time. Our team engages with the full clinical picture rather than addressing each condition separately. What this means:
- Treatment shaped around your complete symptom history, including COVID-19 history
- Honest discussion of what the long COVID evidence currently supports and what remains emerging
- Coordination with your existing neurologist, internist, or mental health providers
- Ongoing clinical support extending beyond the initial procedure series
04
Extended Hours & Flexible Scheduling
Friendswood’s population includes aerospace professionals, healthcare workers, educators, and NASA-connected scientists — most managing demanding schedules that don’t accommodate standard clinical hours. Our 5am to 9pm schedule, Monday through Sunday at all three Houston locations, solves that. Pre-dawn appointments before early shifts, evening sessions after full workdays, weekend procedures — all available consistently.
05
Comprehensive Treatment Options
SGB works best as part of a comprehensive approach to trauma recovery. We offer additional treatments that can complement your care:
IV Ketamine Therapy
Rapid relief for PTSD, depression, and anxiety
IM Ketamine Therapy
Intramuscular ketamine for those who prefer this method
Spravato Treatment
FDA-approved nasal esketamine for treatment-resistant depression
TMS Therapy
Non-invasive brain stimulation for depression and OCD
Many patients find that combining SGB with ketamine therapy produces the most comprehensive relief from trauma symptoms.
06
Safe, Comfortable Environment
We understand that people with trauma need to feel safe. Every detail of our treatment environment has been designed with your comfort in mind. Our staff is trained in trauma-informed care, and we move at your pace throughout the entire process. You’ll never be rushed or pressured.
Getting Started with Stellate Ganglion Block in Friendswood
Friendswood’s founding Quakers built a community on the principle of honest, direct dealing — no pretense, no runaround, genuine care for one another. If PTSD, anxiety, long COVID dysautonomia, or any overlap of these conditions has been the problem that honest, direct engagement with conventional medicine hasn’t solved, SGB offers a biologically coherent, evidence-supported intervention that works at the autonomic level where those conditions actually live.
Call (713) 772-5315 for your free consultation. We’ll discuss your full history — including COVID-19 history and PASC symptoms — answer every question honestly, and tell you clearly whether SGB makes clinical sense for your situation. No charge, no pressure, complete confidentiality.
Our South Loop clinic is accessible from Friendswood via the Beltway 8. All three Catalyst locations open 5am to 9pm, every day.
Monday-Sunday, 5am-9pm
Free consultation
Rapid relief
Three Houston locations
Expert anesthesiology care
Commonly Asked Questions
Get Help NowHow quickly does stellate ganglion block work?
Many patients notice improvement within days of the procedure, and some experience relief within minutes. Research shows that effects can appear within 5 minutes and last a month or longer. This rapid onset is one of SGB’s most remarkable features, especially for people who’ve been suffering with trauma symptoms for years.
Is stellate ganglion block safe?
Yes, SGB has been performed safely since the 1920s for various conditions. The procedure has a well-established safety profile with decades of clinical use. Common temporary effects include drooping eyelid, hoarse voice, and warmth on the treated side—all of which resolve within hours. Dr. Ho’s expertise as an anesthesiologist and use of ultrasound guidance ensures the highest safety standards.
Does the procedure hurt?
Most patients experience minimal discomfort. You’ll feel a small pinch from the initial numbing injection, followed by pressure as the medication is administered. The procedure itself takes only minutes, and most patients tolerate it very well. Dr. Ho’s gentle technique and experience help ensure your comfort.
How many SGB treatments will I need?
Many patients experience significant improvement after one or two treatments. Research protocols typically involve two SGBs administered two weeks apart. Some patients benefit from additional treatments over time. We’ll assess your response and recommend a treatment schedule based on your individual results.
How long do the effects last?
Effects typically last one month or longer, with some patients experiencing sustained improvement for many months. A 2025 study found that 96% of patients maintained significant improvement at 6-month follow-up. If symptoms return, the procedure can be repeated.
Can I combine SGB with other treatments?
Yes, many patients find that SGB works best as part of a comprehensive treatment approach. Combining SGB with ketamine therapy, for example, can provide both rapid sympathetic nervous system reset and enhanced neuroplasticity for processing trauma. SGB may also make traditional trauma therapy more tolerable and effective.
Do I need to talk about my trauma during treatment?
No. Unlike trauma-focused therapies that require detailed discussion of traumatic events, SGB works on the biological mechanisms underlying PTSD symptoms. You can share as much or as little as you’re comfortable with. The procedure addresses the physical hyperarousal component of trauma without requiring you to revisit painful memories.
Will insurance cover stellate ganglion block for PTSD?
Coverage varies by insurance plan. SGB for PTSD may be covered by some insurers, particularly when documented as treatment for a recognized condition with failed conventional treatments. We can help verify your benefits and discuss payment options during your consultation.
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