Dore J, Turnipseed B, Dwyer S, Turnipseed A, Andries J, Ascani G, Monnette C, Huidekoper A, Strauss N, Wolfson P. Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP): Patient Demographics, Clinical Data and Outcomes in Three Large Practices Administering Ketamine with Psychotherapy. J Psychoactive Drugs. 2019 Apr-Jun;51(2):189-198. doi: 10.1080/02791072.2019.1587556. Epub 2019 Mar 27. PMID: 30917760.
Highlights:
- Our findings suggest that KAP is an effective method for decreasing depression and anxiety in a private practice setting, especially for older patients and those with severe symptom burden.
- Ketamine’s psychedelic effects are viewed as undesirable “side effects.” In contrast, we believe ketamine can benefit patients with a wide variety of diagnoses when administered with psychotherapy and using its psychedelic properties without the need for intravenous (IV) access.
- Its proven safety over decades of use makes it ideal for office and supervised at-home use.
Results:
- Data from 235 patients from three distinct private general psychiatric practices located in Northern California (Wolfson and Dore) and Austin, Texas (Turnipseed) from 2013–2018 were collected prospectively and analyzed retrospectively.” Treated conditions include major depressive disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder.
- Outcomes included decreases in anxiety and depression. Figure 3 demonstrates clinically significant improvements in depression and anxiety as measured by BDI and HAM-A. Subset analysis of the improvement in depression and anxiety demonstrates that patients with developmental trauma (cPTSD) or developmental trauma have the greatest improvement in depression and anxiety scores. Patient self-reported measures (HAM-A, BDI, change of state scores) correlated with clinician rater views on visit and termination forms (including depression, anxiety, PTSD, and well-being), confirming internal consistency between clinician report and patient self-report. P values for all of these correlations were significant at p< 0.0001.
- Patients with severe symptom burden (including higher BDI at intake, suicidality at intake and within the past year, history of psychiatric hospitalization, and higher ACE scores) had more significant improvements with KAP treatment, as demonstrated by greater improvement in anxiety scores, well-being scores, BDI, PTSD scores, drug and substance scores with treatment, p < .01 for all correlations. Additionally, increased age was correlated with greater improvement of depression.
Conclusion:
Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy is a new and unique methodology with a rapidly growing group of practitioners participating in its development and practice. We have presented a view of its current status combining data from three different related centers, with attendant outcomes with correlations. Psychedelic experience is an inherent, valued, and well-tolerated part of our methodology. Our data support the efficacy of KAP for a wide variety of psychiatric diagnoses and human difficulties, significantly diminishing depression, anxiety, and PTSD and increasing well-being.
