A Ukrainian soldier prepares 155mm artillery rounds in a trench. Ketamine-Assisted Therapy is being used to treat PTSD in some Ukrainian veterans.
Heal Ukraine Trauma supports the research and use of Ketamine-Assisted Therapy in Ukraine.
HUT’s initiative focuses on educating therapists and addressing Ukraine’s mental health crisis.
Administered ketamine is being used in concert with therapy to treat Ukrainian veterans who experience post-traumatic stress disorder from fighting on the battlefield.
"Veterans, of course, are really exposed to so much in their work at the front lines and have high rates of PTSD and treatment-related resistant depression," Elaine Klein, the board president and co-founder of an American nonprofit, Heal Ukraine Trauma, supporting the use and research of Ketamine-Assisted Therapy, told Business Insider.
Ketamine-Assisted Therapy, which involves the administered use of ketamine paired with a session of therapy between a patient and a mental health professional, is a lesser-known practice in Ukraine and one that healthcare professionals at Heal Ukraine Trauma believe could effectively treat veterans in Ukraine with PTSD.
Ketamine, a dissociative drug with hallucinogenic properties, was originally approved in the US and Ukraine for anesthetic use .
Since 2019, medical professionals have been able to prescribe a version of ketamine by the name of esketamine or Spravato, available in nasal spray form for treatment-resistant depression in the US, as long as it’s taken under medical supervision within a medical facility. Ketamine clinics across the US are now offering Ketamine not just for treatment-resistant depression, but also for ailments like substance addiction, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, and eating disorders, where there is substantially less research on the drug’s efficacy. Julia Rendleman/Getty Images via The Washington Post The number of Ketamine clinics providing a variety of services in the US has been growing over the past few years; however, Ketamine-Assisted Therapy is a fairly new practice that is often misunderstood in Ukraine.
Dr. Vladislav Matrenitsky, a Kyiv-based psychotherapist, author, and founder of the Center for Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics and Psychedelic Medicine Expio, told BI that "the problem is not many psychiatrists and psychologists know about the psychedelic therapy.""They’re afraid people will get dependent on this, so still […]
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