About Ketamine

Ketamine got its start in Belgium in the 1960s as an anesthesia medicine for animals. The FDA approved it as an anesthetic for humans in 1970. At first its was used to treat injured soldiers on the battlefields in the Vietnam War and proved to be highly effective.

Emergency Responders began to carry Ketamine in their packs to be used as an anesthetic for medical emergencies. There was an instance that a Responder administered a dose to a calm a mentally agitated patient on the verge of a suicide attempt. That's how Rod Stewart, MD, says doctors began to realize that the drug had powerful effects against depression, anxiety, and other forms of mental illness, in both minor and acute cases.

MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES IN THE US

• Depression effects 26.4 million people, 17% of the US population • It increases heart disease and stroke, along with a 10 year reduction in life expectancy

• Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the US and rising • Anxiety affects 40 million adults in the US

COVID EXACERBATED THIS

TRADITIONAL TREATMENT

• SSRI, SNRI, Benzodiazepines, Tricyclic, etc

ISSUES WITH TRADITIONAL TREATMENT

• Most drugs take weeks or months to see if there is an effect

• 2/3 of patients don't see a response after one trial of anti depressants.

• Withdrawal symptoms if stopped - need to taper off over a number of months

• Can cause many unpleasant side effects

• 1/3 of patients do not have a response after two or more trials of antidepressants

• Some studies show limited efficacy of SSRI's compared to a placebo

"The discovery and development of ketamine has dramatically altered the way we think about mental health treatment"

THIS IS A GAME CHANGER

Ketamine is the 'THE ANTI-MEDICATION' because with most medications, like valium, the anti-anxiety effect you get only lasts when it is in your system. When the valium goes away, you can get rebound anxiety. When you take ketamine, it triggers reactions in your cortex that enable brain connections to regrow. It's the reaction to ketamine, not the presence of ketamine in the body that constitutes its effects"