What is ketamine?
Ketamin is a legal medicine that has been used from the middle of the last century in medicine for surgical anesthesia and pain relief. In the early 2000s, it was found that in microdoses it has a pronounced antidepressant effect. Even a single injection of this drug has a significant and rapid antidepressant effect on patients with sustainable depression that is not amenable to other drugs. As you know, traditional antidepressants begin to have an effect only after a few weeks or even months after the start of admission, but in general their effectiveness has recently questioned. So, in 2010 in a solid medical journal JAMA published data that many popular antidepressants in most cases (for mild or moderate depression) work no better than ordinary placebos.
In March 2019, the US Drug Administration (FDA), an example for most other countries, approved use of ketamine to treat depression. According to Ronald Duman, professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at Yale University, "The discovery of the rapid therapeutic effect of ketamine in the treatment of resistant depression is the biggest breakthrough in the scientific study of depression in the past half century."
Today, ketamin therapy is used in the treatment of not only depression, but also other consequences of chronic stress (while on experimental): neurosis, obsessive states (OCR), anxiety, suicidal thoughts, post -traumatic stress disorder (PTSR), emotional burnout, and can also be effective in eliminating painful sensations for migraines, Fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis and neuropathy in patients who have not previously been helped by other treatment methods.
Cetamine action mechanisms on the brain and psyche
Research shows that ketamine increases brain neuroplasticity by helping regenerate synaptic connections between brain cells damaged by stress and depression. The drug acts at a completely different level of the neurotransmitter system compared to currently existing antidepressants. Therefore, there are more and more clinics abroad that use ketamine to treat patients with depression who have not been helped by standard drugs - after all, about 75% of patients aged 15 to 55 years are amenable to treatment with this anesthetic.
It is especially important that in the course of treatment, patients whose ability to intellectual activity and learning in depression often become reduced, become more receptive to psychotherapy. There is an important period during which it is possible to work effectively with the patient to achieve a long-term remission. By varying the dosage, you can achieve psychedelic states of consciousness with expanded space-time perception, which has a deep transpersonal and transformational effect. This leads to a revision of the system of internal values, sustainable and positive psychological changes.
Patients become more confident in themselves, their abilities and their future, less anxious and neurotic, more balanced, emotionally open and self-sufficient. Their level of internal tension, discomfort, emotional isolation decreases, self-esteem increases, a tendency to overcome a passive position appears, and creative activity increases.
A person’s understanding of the meaning of life and views on their own “I” and the world around them, life and death change, the spiritual horizon expands, relationships with other people improve, personal growth and self-knowledge begin.
How is treatment going?
Before the session, you will undergo an interview with a psychiatrist in order to determine whether you have treatment with ketamine. This includes a discussion of your medical and psychological history, the diagnosis of your mental state and filling out a number of psychological tests.
A session of ketamine therapy takes place in the form of intravenous drip administration of the drug. Within 40 minutes to one and a half hours after the start of the introduction of ketamin, you will be in an altered state of consciousness. The task of an anesthesiologist is to control your bodily and physical condition, and a clinical psychologist is to help you solve the psychological problems underlying your health disorders.
After the session, a discussion of your experiences and insights is carried out in the process of therapy and the completeness of the restoration of your mental state is tested, after which you can leave the clinic. Some minor changes in sensory perception, speech and spatial orientation can last up to 5 hours.
The full course of therapy consists of three blocks: the main, fixing and supporting.
The main block depends on the severity of the state of the disease and can include 6 - 10 droppers with ketamine microdoses, introduced for 40 minutes 2 times a week, with simultaneous psychotherapy, and an intermediate session of integrative (analytical) psychotherapy, which find out and develop the results achieved in the previous session.
In order to improve the result, we consider it necessary to take a consolidating course after the main course of treatment - one session per month for three months (i.e. three sessions), and then a supporting course - one session in the quarter during the year (i.e. 4 sessions per year).
It is also important to remember that relapse of psyche diseases usually occurs as a result of serious stress. Therefore, we advise you to go through a preventive session in the coming days after such a stressful situation.
The duration of the effect of treatment depends on the method of using ketamine. If this is exclusively infusion of the drug without psychotherapy, the effect of the session usually persists from one to several weeks. But if ketamine is used with simultaneous psychotherapy, we most often achieve a fairly stable remission.
What will you feel during the session?
Most often, patients during the session note the state of peace, disappearance of fear, mental peace or rise. Ketamin has practically no side effects, since it has insignificant toxicity. Sometimes there are sensations of heat, slight intoxication or anxiety, temporary headaches or dry mouth, small fluctuations in blood pressure or visual impairment, which disappear shortly after the discontinuation of the dropper. Therefore, we carefully observe the reactions of the patient, and do not recommend driving a car and dangerous mechanisms for 24 hours. It is recommended to return home with the accompanying person.
Why is it worth taking a course of ketamin therapy in the center of Cekespio?
We are pioneers of Ketamin therapy in Ukraine (since 2018). In 2025, we spent more than 1000 medical sessions and gained vast experience in this direction. Our experts own the methodology of ketamine therapy better than anyone in Eastern Europe, which is reflected in publications leading world media. Director and founder of the Center for Expio V. L. Matrintsky in 2021-2022. He took a course of improving at the American training center of ketamine therapy Polaris Insight Center, and in 2024 took part in the International Ketamin therapy seminar in Barcelona.
We are often asked why this method is not common in Ukraine? The fact is that the majority of our citizens (including, unfortunately, psychiatrists and psychologists) still do not understand the difference between psychedelics and drugsTherefore, they are wary of ketamine therapy. Few psychiatrists and psychotherapists have the necessary knowledge and experience in psychedelic medicine.
Unfortunately, unscrupulous competitors have recently begun to appear, who, without due knowledge and experience, copy information from our site and even our name, hoping at least in this way to attract customers.
Be careful! After all, working with altered states of consciousness that ketamine causes requires special qualifications. It is important to correctly remove a person from a state of dissociation and prevent the negative psychological consequences of this state, which can arise in the event of incompetence of a doctor or psychologist.
You will find more information on our specialized site, посвященном кетминовой терапии.
Ketamine psychotherapy session in our center
Media about ketamine therapy:
How does ketamine affect depression?
US approves ketamine nasal drops to treat depression
Depressed children are being treated with ketamine
Ketamine in the treatment of chronic headache
Ketamine therapy for neuropathic (nerve) pain during and after cancer treatment
Scientific articles about ketamine therapy:
Ketamine: a new look at therapeutic possibilities
Ketamine in the treatment of depression (review of current data)
Report of V. L. Matrenytskyi at International scientific and practical conference "Psychedelic-assisted therapy in the treatment of post-traumatic conditions. International experience and prospects of implementation in Ukraine"
Доповідь директора центру Експіо Владислава Матреницького “Інтегративна кетамін-асистована психотерапія: шість років досвіду в Україні” на першому украінському Симпозіумі з кетамін-асистованої психотерапії.
What is ketamine therapy and how to treat mental disorders with its help - in the hromadske material.
A license from the State Medical Service of Ukraine for the use of ketamine in clinical practice was issued to the medical center TOV Expio by order No. 1065 dated July 11, 2024 (previously by order dated October 25, 2018 to FOP Matrenitskiy V.L.).
Refutation of publications of the yellow press about the illegal use of ketamine by the Expio Center