Later this year, hundreds of Brits with severe alcohol problems will take small doses of ketamine in the multi-million-dollar trial of a new addiction treatment.
When combined with talk therapy, ketamine - a licensed medical drug which has psychedelic properties - can give people new insights into their relationship with alcohol, says University of Exeter psychologist Celia Morgan.
Photo: thom masat
Listen to Professor Celia Morgan on the therapeutic potential of ketamine
Celia Morgan, a professor of psychopharmacology at the UK's University of Exeter Photo: Supplied
Due to the impressive results of an earlier trial, Professor Morgan gets emails every day from people who want to either take part in ketamine-assisted therapy themselves or sign up a family member.
Many are running out of hope in their fight against booze, she says.
"Of people who are treated and detoxified for alcohol, 3 out of 4 of them will be back drinking within 12 months … so I really hope to provide a new treatment."
Psychedelic drugs such as ketamine are getting a lot of hype as a "new wonder treatment" for addiction, Professor Morgan says, but not everyone responds to these substances in the same way.
When ketamine does have the desired therapeutic effect, it can assist a psychotherapy session by stimulating neuroplasticity – making the brain "more plastic and able to do new things" – and also triggering a more subjective view of reality, she says.
"People often feel like they're outside of their bodies and … see their life from a different perspective.
"That's kind of what we're asking people to do in psychotherapy, we're asking them to take new perspectives and learn new techniques."
Many people use alcohol as self-medication for unhealed trauma, Professor Morgan says.
"[Ketamine-assisted therapy] gives them a really new perspective on their old problems and enables them to get insights into their life with alcohol."
To work through the trauma which underlies alcohol addiction, the combination of therapy and ketamine is proving more "durable", she says.
"I really think it's missing a trick not to combine it with therapy … it really helps the therapy better and it makes the treatment more long-lasting."
Participants in the multi-million dollar trial will be given three doses of ketamine – a licensed medical drug with psychedelic properties – over the course of seven talk therapy sessions.
The potential for drug abuse in ketamine-assisted therapy is something Professor Mason is mindful of, but she is also "reassured" by the University of Sussex's rehab paradigm.
"We're only giving three sessions of ketamine and it's really embedded in a therapy programme. [I don't believe] we're going to incur any [drug abuse] problems but it's something we're watching out for."
Past trial participants preferred to get just three 'doses' of a drug instead of having to take tablets every day, she says.
"It's kind of putting the control in the recovery back in their hands 'cause it's really in the therapy that the work takes place."
Ketamine is a licensed medical drug, widely used as an anaesthetic and in pain relief. It is also used as a recreational drug and is classified in NZ as a Class C controlled drug.
WATCH - Professor Celia Morgan talks about the benefits, risks and therapeutic potential of ketamine: