Ketamine Infusions Could Help People Quit Alcohol: Study
- Ketamine infusions with psychological therapy could represent “hope” for alcohol misuse, scientists say.
- Ketamine and therapy cut the risk of relapse by 2.7 times at six months, the study authors said.
- It won’t work for everyone and others might need “top ups”, the scientists cautioned.
An infusion of the widely-used anesthetic ketamine could represent “new hope” in the treatment of millions of people with alcohol problems, scientists studying the drug said.
People with severe alcohol problems who were given ketamine infusions alongside psychological therapy quit drinking for longer than those who received a standard treatment for alcoholism, according to the findings of a study published Tuesday in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
The risk of relapse in the group that received ketamine-plus-therapy at six months was 2.7 times less than in those who received a placebo plus alcohol cessation education, researchers from University of Exeter and