Batya Swift Yasgur, MA, LSW, published on Medscape Medical News
Combining ketamine and psychotherapy is a promising approach for treating posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), new research suggests.
In a systematic review and meta-analysis of four studies investigating combined use of psychotherapy and ketamine for PTSD, results showed all the studies showed a significant reduction in PTSD symptom scores.
Overall, the treatment was “highly effective, as seen by the significant improvements in symptoms on multiple measures,” Aaron E. Philipp-Muller, BScH, Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and colleagues write.
Furthermore, the study “demonstrates the potential feasibility of this treatment model and corroborates previous work,” the investigators write.
However, a limitation they note was that only 34 participants were included in the analysis.
The findings were published online February 6 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.
Emerging Treatment
Ketamine is an “emerging treatment for a number of psychopathologies, such as major depressive disorder and PTSD, with a higher response than other pharmacologic agents,” the researchers write.
It is hypothesized that ketamine rapidly facilitates long-term potentiation, “thereby allowing a patient to disengage from an established pattern of thought more readily,” they write.
However, ketamine has several drawbacks, including the fact that it brings only 1 week of relief for PTSD. Also, because it must be administered intravenously, it is “impractical for long-term weekly administration,” they note.
Pharmacologically enhanced psychotherapy is a potential way to prolong ketamine’s effects. Several prior studies have investigated this model using other psychedelic medications, with encouraging results.
The current investigators decided to review all literature to date on the subject of ketamine plus psychotherapy for the treatment of PTSD.
To be included, the study had to include patients diagnosed with PTSD, an intervention involving ketamine alongside any form of psychotherapy, and assessment of all patients before and after treatment using the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) or the PTSD Checklist (PCL).