Revisited - Ketamine Infusion Therapy: Expert Dr. Craig Heacock Discusses Safe Protocols & Risks

In this revisited episode of Beyond the Balance Sheet, Dr. Craig Heacock joins us. He is an adolescent and adult psychiatrist and addiction specialist in Colorado and the host and co-producer of the podcast Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories. First, Dr. Heacock gives us a brief history of ketamine from the last fifty years as an FDA-approved drug. We talk about how ketamine became a go-to treatment for resistant depression and bipolar disorder. Tune in as Dr. Heacock reveals how a state-of-the-art assessment delivery and follow-up for ketamine would look like.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• [02:00] Ketamine: a brief history of the past fifty years.  

• [05:00] How would a state-of-the-art assessment delivery and follow-up for ketamine look like?  

• [09:00] Who is running the ketamine clinics if there's a shortage of psychiatrists?  

• [11:55] How money and profit drive some of this ketamine delivery. 

• [16:09] Dr. Heacock's experience with individuals who abuse ketamine.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Ketamine is a go-to treatment for resistant depression and bipolar disorder.

• A state-of-the-art ketamine therapy involves a true psychiatric evaluation to see if there are other things that should be happening first.

• Ketamine does not replace medications; it augments them and helps them work better.

• Most people that are receiving ketamine treatments are very middle class.

LINKS MENTIONED:

craigheacockmd.com

Podcast: Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/back-from-the-abyss-psychiatry-in-stories/id1469826718

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-heacock-md-1a8618196

BIO:

Dr. Craig Heacock is an adolescent and adult psychiatrist and addiction specialist in Colorado and the host and co-producer of the podcast Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories. He was a co-therapist in the Phase 3 trial of MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for PTSD and has particular interest in the use of ketamine and other psychedelics to treat severe mood disorders and PTSD. He is a graduate of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and did his psychiatry training at Brown University.