Breaking Convention 2023 will see a panel of experts join together to discuss the benefits and risks of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy as the treatment begins to gain traction in the UK and Europe.
Used since the 60s as an anaesthetic, ketamine in combination with supportive psychotherapy is showing increasing evidence as being an efficacious, fast acting antidepressant.
The last few years have seen the UK and Europe follow in the footsteps of the United States with the roll out of a number of ketamine treatment centres.
Panellist Celia Morgan, ketamine and addiction expert, Professor of Psychiatry at Exeter University, and Head of Ketamine-Assisted Therapy for Addiction at Awakn Life Sciences, told Psychedelic Health: “I’m looking forward to discussing the past, present and future of ketamine treatment in our panel at Breaking Convention.
“Ketamine clinics have sprung up over the past decade in the US but also here in the UK and in Europe. There are some recent signs that the tide may be turning with companies like Field Trip going bankrupt.
“In the UK, we’ve just started the largest trial of ketamine assisted therapy so far conducted here at Exeter, funded by a grant from our Department of Health. This will look at ketamine alongside psychological therapy as a treatment for people with alcohol problems.
“Other speakers will be talking about group therapy with ketamine for trauma as well as individual private ketamine treatments both with therapy and without.
“In this session we will also be exploring the potential for addiction to ketamine and weighing up the evidence there. This is an emotive topic for our speakers and we have the wonderful Zoe Cormier moderating our debate so expect sparks to fly and a very entertaining discussion.”
Panel host, journalist Zoe Cormier, who is passionate about highlighting the risk of addiction to ketamine, said: “There were ketamine addiction outbreaks in Taiwan and Hong Kong in the year 2000 – a quarter of a century ago – this is not new. I always call ketamine the heroin from my generation – it destroyed more friends of mine than alcohol.
“The antidepressant effect of ketamine goes away surprisingly rapidly – in some cases just after a week. If you’ve been depressed for years and that relief goes away – you will want to do it again. This is a recipe for addiction.
“This is so shocking to me, especially in America, which is still dealing with the ravages of the opioid epidemic.
“I’m not saying that ketamine infusion therapy shouldn’t exist: in very rare cases of Treatment Resistant Depression it can help because it gets you out of your depression hole, which can give you the leg up to then do the work you need to do.”
Cormier highlights another pressing issue with the roll out of ketamine clinics is the current lack of regulations.
“Not all clinics are the same and if you pay for the high end clinics, you will get therapy, but at the cheaper ones, they are known as “pump and dumps” because they pump the patients full of ketamine, then put them in a taxi and send them home with no aftercare,” said Cormier.
“If you want you can go to a different ketamine clinic every day of the week if you can afford it in America because there’s no regulation, there’s no central body.”
Make sure to catch this panel at Breaking Convention 2023 which will take place from Thursday, 21 April to Saturday, 23 April at the University of Exeter.
Psychedelic Health is pleased to be media partners with Breaking Convention. For 10% off your ticket purchase please visit this link and use the code PHBC10.
