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The new way to treat depression, anxiety and chronic neuropathic pain
Newsletter No 9 (27th January 2022)
Alarming depression and suicide rates in the LGBTQ+ community
A survey conducted in the USA in 2020 polled 40 000 LGBTQ+ youth between the ages of 13 and 24 and discovered that 40% had seriously contemplated suicide in the preceding year. More than half suffered with major depression and almost 70% reported symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder. The situation has worsened since the start of the COVID pandemic.
An LGBTQ+ teenager is six-times more likely to suffer depression than their heterosexual or cisgenders peers. These numbers can reasonably be extrapolated to the South African context where the overall rate of suicide now places this country second on the world list after Russia.
KCSA was approached by the editorial staff of SA Gay Pages, a quarterly magazine, following the tragic suicide of yet another high profile gay man, former Mr. Gay SA, DA Counsellor and psychologist, Lance Weyers, late last year. They were encouraged to hear of ketamine's success in treating resistant depression and reversing suicidality. Read the article in the SA Gay Pages magazine, and the testimonial from a gay KCSA patient by clicking the link below.
Yet another medical professional experienced a dramatic turnaround after ketamine infusions...
In our last newsletter we reported that physicians are twice as likely to commit suicide than the general population. We featured a testimonial from a gynaecologist, whose life was turned around after ketamine infusions.
KCSA has since received wonderful feedback from yet another medical professional who says it has taken her 10-years to finally find a solution for her depression and anxiety. Ketamine.
Read Candace's quirky and encouraging account of her treatment at our Cape Town clinic.
Another study demonstrating that low-dose ketamine combined with CBT improves abstinence in alcoholics
This study demonstrates that treatment with three infusions of low-dose ketamine in patients with alcohol use disorder was associated with more days of abstinence from alcohol at 6-month follow-up.
In a previous newsletter, we linked to an article describing how ketamine infusions can rewrite maladaptive reward memories (MRMs) to reduce harmful drinking.
Dr F. Perry Wilson of the Yale School of Medicine suggests that "Ketamine learns a new trick" in his short Medscape video discussing the paper appearing in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
KCSA offers outpatient ketamine infusions at the following locations:
BEDFORDVIEW (GP)
CONSTANTIA (WC)
UMHLANGA (KZN)
HILTON (KZN)
Low-dose ketamine infusions quickly improve distorted thinking and reasoning to reduce suicidal thoughts independently of ketamine's effect on depression.
(Suicidal patients are not necessarily depressed).
"Being able to think more clearly can make someone feel less suicidal"
Ketamine improves several cognitive functions - a new domain in suicide risk reduction
Professor John Mann is Director of Research and Molecular Imaging at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. He is past President of the International Academy of Suicide Research.
Prof. Mann's research employs functional brain imaging, neurochemistry and molecular genetics to probe the causes of depression and suicide.
Prof. Mann is lead author of a study published in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry that demonstrates ketamine's ability to rapidly improve several cognitive functions linked to suicide attempts.
While ketamine is well known to rapidly improve symptoms of depression (and this accounts in part for reduction in suicidal ideation), the study notes specific improvement in reaction time and cognitive control / interference processing, domains associated with previous suicide attempts in depressed patients.
Link to Medscape's review of the study.
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) - nicknamed: 'The suicide disease'.
CRPS is ranked amongst the most painful of all medical conditions. Activation of NMDA-receptors is linked to neuropathic pain and CRPS, so little wonder ketamine infusions can offer significant relief to many sufferers.
NMDAR activation also leads to reduced opioid receptor sensitivity which, coupled with the potential for paradoxical opioid induced hyperalgaesia (OIH) makes outpatient ketamine infusion an elegant solution for patients seeking ever increasing opioid doses.
A registered nurse from Rhode Island shares her CRPS & Ketamine story in Practical Pain Management, and describes how her pain intensity reduced by 50% after ketamine.
At KCSA clinics, we adopt a very similar protocol for management of CRPS and other neuropathic pain conditions.
In the next newsletter..
Professor Christopher Szabo talks with KCSA founder and National Medical Director, Dr Alan Howard, about ketamine, and asks one of KCSA's patients to describe the impact the treatment has had on their life. |
How did KCSA start in South Africa?
Ketamine 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. To read more about Dr Howard and KCSA's flagship clinic in the Natal Midlands in two informative articles published in South African Psychiatry click on the link below. |
