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A new way to treat depression, anxiety and chronic neuropathic pain
Est 2019 Over 10 000 safe ketamine infusions
Newsletter No 28 (26 November 2024)
Treatment Resistant Bipolar Depression (TRBD)
A crisis in waiting ...
As many as 26% of patients with BD will attempt suicide, and up to 10% are successful. Ketamine infusion is usually very effective in this cohort.
The lifetime prevalence of BD is 2-3% and the suicide rate is alarming. There are high rates of treatment resistance, relapse, and adverse effects of medication.
'Novel treatments are urgently needed,' say researchers.
No RCT to date has evaluated the effects of repeated ketamine infusion (KIT) specifically for TRBD. Canadian researchers report on the efficacy of KIT in a cohort of 66 TRBD patients.
Read the beautifully written testimonial of a medical specialist with TRBD treated at a KetaMIND clinic here.
SASOP and the ketamine position statements
KetaMIND's founder and National Medical Director highlights important concerns about SASOP's position statements on ketamine therapy, and points to key areas deserving of further consideration and discussion. After broad consultation, it appears that these concerns are quite widely held across a spectrum of mental health stakeholders and potential patients alike.
Since 2022 SASOP has issued three position statements addressing ketamine therapy for Treatment Resistant Depression (TRD).
Within these statements are precepts that deserve further scrutiny, clarification, and discussion.
Questions like: "Given the prevalence of TRD and suicidality and difficulty accessing urgent psychiatric assessment, why are experienced GP's and clinical psychologists considered incapable of diagnosing TRD?" and: "Why is ketamine infusion held to a different standard by detractors?" are raised and discussed in the following document.
Journaling during a ketamine infusion? Some useful insights...
If you have ever wondered what a 'non-ordinary state of consciousness' (NOSC) might feel like, read the journal entries of a patient typed during his ketamine infusions. The healing and transformative potential of the ketamine-experience per se becomes very apparent.
The patient had been prescribed combinations of 7 different psychotropic drugs over 5-years before remitting after ketamine infusions.
Depression, anxiety, and suicidality is particularly prevalent in the medical profession. You can link to testimonials from doctors treated at KCSA clinics here and here.
A 30-year-old suicidal medical student with TRD and PTSD was able to journal his experience while receiving four ketamine infusions. He completely remitted and the case report and his journals were published in Frontiers in Psychiatry in 2022.
(Note: At KetaMIND we use lower doses of ketamine than those used in this study. We do not exceed 1mg/kg/40min.)
KetaMIND clinics currently offer outpatient ketamine infusions at the following 7-locations:
BEDFORDVIEW / BRYANSTON (GP)
CONSTANTIA (WC)
UMHLANGA (KZN)
HILTON (KZN)
HILLCREST (KZN)
PAARL (WC)
In the next newsletter..
Ketamine induced uropathy (KIU) - a closer look at ketamine and bladder pathology... Detractors will frequently and quite disingenuously point to potential bladder pathology associated with ketamine use, without qualifying that this risk is limited to those using frequent high doses of ketamine over an extended period. We will link to the case report of a patient who used between 7g and 30g ketamine per week and developed KIU. By contrast, an 80kg patient during an induction series over 3-weeks receiving a maximum of 1mg/kg per infusion will use a total of 160mg in a week. This is only 0.5 - 2.3% of the aforementioned abused weekly dose, and is administered intermittently over a period of only 3-weeks. After more then 10 000-infusions at KetaMIND clinics, we are unaware of any patient developing KIU. |
How did KCSA start in South Africa?
KetaMIND Clinics of South Africa (KCSA) was founded by Dr Alan Howard, a Consultant in Emergency Medicine who returned home permanently to his native South Africa from Ireland in 2019. Since then, KCSA has grown to 7-clinics in 3-provinces with further clinics in planning. Read more about Dr Howard and KCSA's flagship clinic in the Natal Midlands in two informative articles published in South African Psychiatry A follow-up article, Ketamine Clinics beyond the Hills can be accessed here. Dr Howard is a member of the American Society of Ketamine Physicians (ASKP3), and is an associate member of the South African Society of Psychiatrists (SASOP). He has also served on the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) faculty for over 25-years. Dr Howard founded the Society of Ketamine Practitioners of South Africa (SOKePSA) in 2020. |
