Ketamine has been used in medicine and veterinary medicine for decades as an anesthetic and pain reliever, but for some Albertans, the dissociative drug has become a savior in the fight against depression and other mental health problems.
"He literally changed my life," says Cassandra Walker, who suffered from depression for most of her teenage years and throughout her adult life. "I was a person who couldn't get out of bed, woke up in the morning with paralyzing anxiety and almost couldn't explain why."
A woman from Spruce Grove said that her life was like a roller coaster of trials of different drugs, endless visits to doctors, intensive psychotherapy and counseling: “When I was at the height, I visited (my therapist) one to two times a week ". Further…
Trying different antidepressants was a grueling process, she said. "You slowly wean yourself off them, and it takes a while. And then you slowly get used to something new, and it also takes some time. And all this is not very pleasant. And so - one medicine after another."
Depression is difficult to understand, even for doctors. One day, a new doctor suggested that she simply go for walks to overcome her depression. She said that nothing she tried worked - her brain resisted.
It wasn't until a new doctor asked why Walker wasn't seeing a psychiatrist and then referred her to the Manor Clinic in Edmonton that things started to change for the better.
Last fall, Alberta became the first province to regulate the use of psychedelic drugs to treat mental disorders, including psilocybin and psilocin (both found in magic mushrooms), MDMA, LSD, mescaline (peyote), DMT, 5-methoxy-DMT and ketamine. The province amended the Mental Health Protection Regulations, which came into effect last month.
Dr. Yogesh Thakker, a psychiatrist and owner of the Manor Clinic, says that statistics show that about one in eight Canadians will experience depression at some point in their lives.
According to Tucker, about two-thirds of them respond to commonly prescribed antidepressants -- selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as Prozac, Zoloft and Lexapro -- but for the remaining one-third, traditional medicine does not work.
In people with treatment-resistant depression, ketamine has a treatment response rate of up to 70 to 80 percent, Thacker said, which he says is higher than with traditional medications. Results are also seen almost overnight.
"Unlike conventional traditional antidepressants, which take two to four weeks to take effect, ketamine works within hours, and the effects last from days to weeks."
For people with treatment-resistant depression, this is crucial.
"If they have a very poor quality of life, they can't even get out of bed, they have very low motivation: it significantly affects the quality of life even for them, especially if they don't respond to traditional antidepressants and psychological therapy."
There are risks: Thacker says they monitor patients closely for signs of abuse or addiction, as well as the rare possibility of high blood pressure or seizures.
The duration and frequency of ketamine treatment depends on each patient. They are usually referred to the "Manor" clinic by a family doctor after traditional methods of treatment have been exhausted. "We get people who have been on a lot of antidepressants for years," Thakker said, adding that their quality of life has deteriorated significantly.
"They have no energy. They cannot work. Their social life suffered. And often they have a history of failed treatment, even ECT – or electroconvulsive therapy – and psychological therapy as well. So often for many of the patients that come to us, ketamine would really be a last resort. And he can change lives."
The Alberta Ministry of Health, the Alberta College of Pharmacy and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta have strict regulations for drugs like ketamine that require a valid prescription.
Cassandra Walker said ketamine allowed her brain to process antidepressants the way they were supposed to.
Ketamine therapy is not an "either-or" treatment: Walker said she has supplemented what she already does to support her mental health, such as taking medication, seeing therapy about every two weeks, and exercising, sleeping and being well. eats
After starting treatment, she said that her view of everything improved: the world became brighter, colors more saturated. It was as if a burden had been lifted from her.
While ketamine is the only psychedelic that Thacker prescribes, he says research is quickly emerging on the benefits of other drugs, such as magic mushrooms and LSD.
"The future is in psychedelics and their use in mental health, and I'd say it's very, very promising based on the evidence I've seen."
According to the materials globalnews.ca