What can Ketamine Help?
Ketamine is well-known in its ability to successfully treat depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD and chronic pain. Encouragingly enough, ketamine can treat a broad range of psychiatric and physical conditions that fall outside of the more well-known mood disorders.
If you search ‘ketamine’ on clinicialtrials.gov you will find over a thousand different clinical trials studying its use. Other conditions that ketamine is being studied to treat are:
Autism
Rett Syndrome
Intermittent Explosive Disorder
Alcoholism and heroin addiction
Cocaine dependence
Anorexia nervosa
Borderline Personality Disorder
Parkinson’s disease
Priapism
Rett Syndrome, intermittent explosive disorder, borderline personality disorder, parkinson’s disease and priapism are conditions that are currently being studied with the use of ketamine, so for this article we will be focusing on ketamine for autism, alcoholism, cocaine dependence, and anorexia nervosa.
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Autism
Autism is considered a neurodevelopmental disorder that causes challenges in social communication and repetitive behaviors. Common medications to treat autism, such as memantine and D-cycloserine, target the glutamate system in a similar way that ketamine does. In clinical trials, patients that received intravenous ketamine for autism were reported to be calmer, more alert, less self-abusive, and one patient even learned two new words after receiving ketamine.
Alcoholism and Heroin
A single dose of intravenous ketamine is an effective treatment for alcoholism and heroin addiction. Ketamine effectively reduces withdrawals, cravings, and reward-memory. Reducing withdrawal and reward memory symptoms helps patients feel less agitated, anxious, and can even reduce shakes, nausea, and even seizures.
Cocaine Dependence
Dr. Dakwar is leading the way in his research for treating cocaine dependency with ketamine. His findings showed 67% of patients reduced self-administration of cocaine after one intravenous dose of ketamine. Dakwar also combined ketamine with mindfulness training. This research has been very positive and encouraging. At two weeks, 49% of patients receiving ketamine stopped using cocaine altogether, compared to 9% of patients who were receiving a placebo infusion. Dakwar believes that ketamine quiets the mind long enough so that patients have the mental space to develop new thought patterns and behaviors.
Anorexia Nervosa
Anorexia nervosa is a complex disease to treat. The precise aetiology of anorexia is unknown, however most patients benefit from a comprehensive treatment plan including therapy. Anorexia, perhaps due to malnutrition, causes deterioration of the white and gray brain matter, causes impairments in neuroplasticity and neurogenesis, all which contribute to memory impairments, learning difficulties, and cognitive in-flexibility. Ketamine may be able to promote healing within the brain. Anorexia nervosa Patients need urgent options for treatment, as it's rare that typical antidepressants work for anorexia nervosa. While ketamine for anorexia is relatively new, and more research is needed for its efficacy, acceptability and safety, ketamine may be a viable addition to a treatment plan.
Ketamine is believed to “rewire” the reward center of the brain. For those considering trying ketamine we recommend reading our previous article “Is Ketamine Safe?” Given ketamine’s known ability to prompt neurogenesis and synaptic change, it is clear that ketamine can be helpful in the treatment of various addictions.
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