Hi Kizzzie,
Yes it is a legal, but very new. I'm not in a triaI. I believe that in Ketamine trials, a course of treatment includes either a random 50 percent of treatments with a placebo substance, or placebo group that never receives the active agent, and they are double blind, so neither patient nor provider knows whether the treatment contains the agent being trialed.
As far as I'm aware, I'm the only patient they have treated who suffered cPTSD (or PTSD as is my official designation). It is being used to treat severe treatment resistant Major Depressive Disorder, but I advocated strongly to be allowed to be in the programme. I think most patients who experience the treatment as traumatic, as I did in the beginning, would simply give up, believing the cure to be worse than the complaint, and I think that is a pity.
In some centres the treatment is individualised according to the patient and those with ptsd would start at a much lower dose and someone would stay with them, maybe hold their hand if they felt comfortable with that. They would receive more information about what to expect. Where Ketamine is infused, the infusion would be turned off at the patient's signal, and only resumed when the patient felt able to continue, so the whole experience would be subject to a degree of control. Ketamine effects are also very context dependent. Having someone trusted and caring present has been shown to make a big difference to the amount of fear experienced and can be part of the therapeutic benefit. I wish I had been able to have my therapist my me. I was able to talk to her by skype the next day, and it deepened my trust and our relationship, but it would have been great to have her present. I learned to soothe myself, and it is unusual to be dissociated into different aspects of yourself so that you can actually experience being soothed by your own words in the moment.
One of the greatest gifts to me was the loss of defences during the process. When I've tried EDMR I've become dissociated from the feelings and there has been little benefit. Once the treatment takes hold you have no choice but to experience the feelings, and when it goes well, that leads to a place of calm after the initial terrors, in which you can look at your feelings, memories and thoughts from a place in which your ego isn't attached to them. This allows parts experiences you may not usually be aware of to arise. It can also allow you to watch your experiences without judgement and with a degree of compassion that isn't usually possible. There can be deep insights into yourself.
After the first treatment, I went into an extremely deep depression as I was emerging. I suppose the lack of usual defences was a factor is how deeply I was affected by this grief. I had an experience that stayed with me and has remained through all the turbulence since. I realised that I'm not a bad person, that I'm okay, and was never the identity that is, I believe, always projected from the abuser into the abused by abuse. It is something that is easy to say but very hard to believe. I know it now. It's not a whole answer, and can be a catalyst for intense anger, and I've needed to work through that and will continue to do so over time, but it makes a big difference.
Yes it is a legal, but very new. I'm not in a triaI. I believe that in Ketamine trials, a course of treatment includes either a random 50 percent of treatments with a placebo substance, or placebo group that never receives the active agent, and they are double blind, so neither patient nor provider knows whether the treatment contains the agent being trialed.
As far as I'm aware, I'm the only patient they have treated who suffered cPTSD (or PTSD as is my official designation). It is being used to treat severe treatment resistant Major Depressive Disorder, but I advocated strongly to be allowed to be in the programme. I think most patients who experience the treatment as traumatic, as I did in the beginning, would simply give up, believing the cure to be worse than the complaint, and I think that is a pity.
In some centres the treatment is individualised according to the patient and those with ptsd would start at a much lower dose and someone would stay with them, maybe hold their hand if they felt comfortable with that. They would receive more information about what to expect. Where Ketamine is infused, the infusion would be turned off at the patient's signal, and only resumed when the patient felt able to continue, so the whole experience would be subject to a degree of control. Ketamine effects are also very context dependent. Having someone trusted and caring present has been shown to make a big difference to the amount of fear experienced and can be part of the therapeutic benefit. I wish I had been able to have my therapist my me. I was able to talk to her by skype the next day, and it deepened my trust and our relationship, but it would have been great to have her present. I learned to soothe myself, and it is unusual to be dissociated into different aspects of yourself so that you can actually experience being soothed by your own words in the moment.
One of the greatest gifts to me was the loss of defences during the process. When I've tried EDMR I've become dissociated from the feelings and there has been little benefit. Once the treatment takes hold you have no choice but to experience the feelings, and when it goes well, that leads to a place of calm after the initial terrors, in which you can look at your feelings, memories and thoughts from a place in which your ego isn't attached to them. This allows parts experiences you may not usually be aware of to arise. It can also allow you to watch your experiences without judgement and with a degree of compassion that isn't usually possible. There can be deep insights into yourself.
After the first treatment, I went into an extremely deep depression as I was emerging. I suppose the lack of usual defences was a factor is how deeply I was affected by this grief. I had an experience that stayed with me and has remained through all the turbulence since. I realised that I'm not a bad person, that I'm okay, and was never the identity that is, I believe, always projected from the abuser into the abused by abuse. It is something that is easy to say but very hard to believe. I know it now. It's not a whole answer, and can be a catalyst for intense anger, and I've needed to work through that and will continue to do so over time, but it makes a big difference.