We were honored to be recently featured recently in The Denver Post, at
https://www.denverpost.com/2022/12/24/ketamine-infusions-depression-chronic-pain-colorado.
It is always beneficial when the media raises public awareness about Ketamine’s astonishing and unrivaled ability to alleviate the suffering of people with anxiety and depression.
However, we would like to clarify a few statements made in the article.
For instance, the statement “much remains unknown”. This is simply not true. We now have sufficient and convincing evidence regarding the effectiveness and safety of ketamine for mental health purposes. Berman et al published the seminal article in the February 2000 edition of Biological Psychiatry: “Antidepressant effects of ketamine in depressed patients”, This study showed that a single ketamine infusion demonstrated antidepressant effects which lasted for several days or up to a week. Then, beginning in 2006, Carlos Zarate and others began to perform what ultimately became multiple well-designed studies, which clearly illustrated both the dramatic effectiveness, and relative safety, of ketamine to reduce the suffering of those afflicted by Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD). As a result, in 2023, we now have hundreds of studies that overwhelmingly demonstrate the ability of ketamine to safely reverse the symptoms of people with TRD.
In addition, over the past 4 to 8 years hundreds of ketamine clinics have opened across the country to treat those suffering from TRD, PTSD, severe anxiety, OCD, and chronic pain. These clinics communicate with each other to share information about how to best utilize ketamine for these purposes. In 2017 the American Society of Ketamine Physicians (see ASKP.org) was formed explicitly to facilitate the sharing of information regarding the use of ketamine for mental health and chronic pain. We joined ASKP during its inception, and are now enjoying our 6th year as part of this society. So we DO have a substantial amount of information about ketamine in this context. Ketamine is, hands down, the most powerful tool we have in the “war on depression and anxiety”; and especially given how effective it is, a relatively safe tool as well.
Finally, “off-label prescribing” is not only quite common, but also quite legal. In fact roughly one out of every five (i.e., 20%) of ALL prescriptions in the US are off-label. “Off-label” is defined as the prescription of a medication for a condition for which there is sufficient scientific evidence that the medicine is safe and effective for that condition, even though it is not FDA-approved.
