Over 264 million people around the world suffer from depression, according to the latest data from the World Health Organization¹. Here in Canada, many find it hard to seek help for depression because it is highly stigmatized. Telling people about your depression to get support can often have the opposite effect: it can strain personal relationships and negatively affect one’s career and family life.
Enter ketamine. Originally used as an anaesthetic and later known as a party or “club drug”, attitudes towards ketamine have undergone a significant overhaul amongst physicians and their patients in recent years. A growing amount of research has supported the idea that ketamine, used in the context of ketamine-assisted therapy (KAT for short), can be a rapidly acting and potent treatment for depression², as well as co-occurring symptoms of anxiety³. This is to the extent that an influential team of psychiatrists and researchers at Yale University stated, in a 2019 article in the prestigious journal Neuron, that ketamine is ushering in a new paradigm in the treatment of depression⁴.
In addition, more in keeping with its original use as an anaesthetic, ketamine is also widely used to treat chronic pain: a condition that nearly always co-occurs with depression symptoms. With these research developments, health practitioners across North America and beyond are now turning to KAT as a rapid-acting, scientifically supported treatment to reduce symptoms of moderate to severe depression, including suicidal ideation⁵, as well as associated symptoms of anxiety and chronic pain.
At EntheoMed’s Ketamine Assisted Therapy Suite in Kelowna, B.C., intramuscular ketamine is used to treat depression as well as chronic pain and other conditions that affect mental health. Ketamine is injected into the patient to kickstart an hour-long psychedelic experience under the supervision of medical staff and an Odyssey facilitator. And while some patients may need ongoing treatments, others have the potential to experience long-term relief after just a single series of ketamine-assisted therapy sessions².
Integrating your ketamine experience is essential for the recovery process, too. We know mental wounds from depression take time to heal. With the psychedelically-assisted psychotherapy and integration modalities uniquely offered by EntheoMed, we help you make the most of your ketamine experience and do our best to make KAT a means for real change, rather than just a band-aid treatment. We view KAT as a window into enhanced psychological flexibility, helping you change patterns of thinking and behaving for the better.
Click here to learn more about EntheoMed’s Ketamine Assisted Therapy Suite, including more details about our approach, the experience, and a form to book your first appointment.
Written by Manesh Girn for EntheoTech
REFERENCES
(1) Depression
(4) Ketamine: A Paradigm Shift for Depression Research and Treatment
