Image caption, Trial lead Prof Celia Morgan said the trial was helping participants stay away from alcohol for longer Emma Ruminski
BBC News, South West Published9 August 2024
A £2.5m trial is using ketamine combined with talking therapies to help people break their addiction to alcohol.
The University of Exeter said it was using a licensed form of the drug and early results showed it reduced participants’ drinking over a period of six months .
It said it is the largest ever trial of ketamine-assisted therapy to help those with alcoholism, increasing its testing from seven to eight NHS sites across the UK for phrase three.
According to Charity Alcohol Change, more than half a million adults in the UK have a serious alcohol problem and three out of four who quit begin drinking again after a year. Image caption, Participant Alex said the trial had helped him stay sober Participants randomly receive a different dose of ketamine infusion and psychological support sessions.
Prof Celia Morgan, who is leading the trial, said the initial stages had found participants stayed away from alcohol for longer.
She said: "We think that ketamine helps to catalyse the psychological therapy, partly because of the unique subjective effects that you get from the drug.
"People find themselves having these quite weird experiences, often having out-of-body experiences, so they look at life from a different perspective, and that is very useful."One participant, Alex, said it had helped him stay sober following 20 years of daily drinking.He said: "I think life-changing is a good way to describe it. [I think] ‘wasn’t that strange that I was ever that kind of entwined with alcohol’ – my perspective on who I was and what I was controlled by, this… need to drink, that’s gone." ‘Out-of-body experiences’ Anna Kelsey, assistant psychologist, said mindfulness therapy was a key part of the research.Its pilot study found that ketamine had the potential to make some people more receptive – improving their engagement with therapy."It’s called neuroplasticity, so when you’re in that aspect you can take on a lot more change, you could be more welcome to new ideas […]
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