Can outpatient ketamine offer release from Post Traumatic Stress?

Countrywide, psychiatrists and therapists are witnessing an increase across the spectrum of anxiety disorders. Ketamine is uniquely able to ameliorate the terrors of PTSD. Although some of our patients report elevated anxiety while under ketamine, as a rule they still present for further infusions citing an overall calmness with reduced flashbacks and nightmares between infusions.

A single ketamine infusion may lead to long-term improvement in problem drinking.

In a previous newsletter we discussed the role of NMDA receptors and maladaptive reward memories (MRM's) in hazardous drinkers. (Read that article here.) A study out of UCL Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit in the UK enrolling 90 heavy drinkers, has shown how single dose ketamine plus CBT significantly curbed the urge to drink and reduced average weekly alcohol consumption by 50% over 9-months of follow up.

Read about the study on Medscape

"This is very nice confirmation that you can trigger craving and, by manipulating that craving, decrease drinking in humans. Working through the glutamatergic system may indeed be a very good target."

George Koob, PhD (Director of the NIAAA)

"I feel much more positive than I did prior to starting the treatments. I am coping better at work and at home. I feel less despondent and more motivated. I am generally a much happier person. "(Nigel, a 58-year-old binge-drinker after a series of ketamine infusions at a KCSA clinic)

KCSA currently offers outpatient ketamine infusions at the following locations:

BEDFORDVIEW (GP)

CONSTANTIA (WC)

UMHLANGA (KZN)

HILTON (KZN)

Contact a KCSA branch

Ketamine Clinics beyond the Hills

The latest edition of South African Psychiatry features a follow up article (p56) on the expansion of KCSA throughout South Africa written by our founder Dr Alan Howard.

Link to the article

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Understanding the role of glutamate in the pathogenesis of OCD - something of a conundrum.

OCD can be profoundly debilitating. At KCSA we usually witness an improvement in YBOCS scores after infusions. While the mechanism of action of ketamine in OCD is unclear (and even somewhat counter-intuitive), the linked article offers some interesting perspectives on ketamine and other drugs used to treat OCD.

Passionate about patient safety: Meet experienced ICU nurse and KCSA's National Nursing Manager, Dianne Duckworth.

Di Duckworth is a household name within ICU and critical care circles in KwaZulu-Natal. KCSA is fortunate to have had Di on board since its inception in 2019. Di offers valuable support and guidance to our nurses throughout South Africa, and gives her nursing perspective on outpatient ketamine infusions.

In the next newsletter..

Read the remarkable story of a young masters student with a debilitating Ritalin addiction and suicidal ideation who discovered restored purpose and hope after a series of outpatient ketamine infusions.

"My dreams are starting to come back.. Now I feel capable of doing and achieving so much. When I wake up in the morning, I have energy that lasts throughout the day. I am happy to be alive."

(KCSA patient who overcame Ritalin abuse and resistant depression after a failed admission to a rehab facility)

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.

Read about the start of KCSA

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