Clinic ketamine-assisted psychotherapy results published

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I’m excited to share my recent publication on ketamine-assisted psychotherapy done here in my clinic in Los Angeles. I partnered with a colleague at Stanford university, Boris Heifets, M.D., Ph.D., to help analyze all the data. It follows patients with depression (and often addiction as well) that I’ve treated over a period of up to 6 years, with combination intramuscular ketamine and psychotherapy that I provided, first in the initial phase of six sessions over a month, and then maintenance phase during this time (approximately monthly). As expected, over time people moved or discontinued treatment, but despite attrition we have enough long term data here to get a look at the good and the bad of ketamine over a long period of time. A few findings and thoughts:

  • ketamine assisted psychotherapy works well: around 80% of people respond, in terms of significant and meaningful improvements in depression

  • tolerance wasn’t a consistent finding; i.e. it continued to work well for many, for years

  • it’s mostly safe: nausea, sedation, and dizziness were most common. A minority of people had emesis (threw up) but anti-emetic medications helped.

  • addiction to ketamine is possible, and can be severe: One person with a history of polysubstance abuse went on to develop a ketamine use disorder, using to excess, losing their job, and suffering a number of other problems. This illustrates the intriguing duality of ketamine as a compound that can both treat depression addiction as well as cause it, and makes the case for keeping such ketamine-assisted psychotherapy as an in-office treatment.

Check it out at the links below. I’ve got a link to the paper as well as video talk I gave on it at the University of Oxford, UK, Ketamine international journal club.

Psilocybin in alcohol use disorder and comorbid depressive symptoms

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Depression after alcohol detox is a big risk factor for relapse to drinking, so this study looked at psychedelic assisted psychotherapy with psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) to see if they could improve outcomes. Two groups were randomized; one group received a 25mg dose and the other got a placebo of 1mg which is an inactive microdose. A few different outcome measures were different between the groups: number of drinking days, craving scores, and relapse rates were all better in the 25mg group, suggesting psilocybin has a genuine effect in facilitating staying quit from drinking. Still, this is a small study, enrolling only 30 individuals, so as they say, more research needs to be done. Check out the link below for the full article. While psilocybin is still not available for medical use in the United States, it will likely be in the coming years at which point it’s worth considering. For now, ketamine assisted psychotherapy remains the only medically available psychedelic, which also has robust anti-addiction properties; confusingly, it also sometimes precipitates a ketamine use disorder, so it’s worth closely considering the risks and benefits, and working with an experienced clinician.

Luquiens A, Belahda D, Graux C, Igounenc N, Serrand C, Rochefort P, et al. Psilocybin in alcohol use disorder and comorbid depressive symptoms: Results from a feasibility randomized clinical trial. Addiction. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70152

full text: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.70152

Could soda be making your depression worse?

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Could soda be making your depression worse? Maybe, according to this new study published in JAMA Psychiatry, which looked at soft drink consumption and the gut microbiome in almost a thousand German people. The authors notes this effect has been observed elsewhere and seems to be absent in high sugar solid foods, so only occurs with consumption of high sugar liquids, like soda. Rodent models of depression show similar effects too, and this seems to be mediated by several different specific microorganisms that can disrupt the gut microbiome, leading to inflammation and more. In this study they linked it to Eggerthella, a bacteria found in the gut and associated with various illnesses like ulcerative colitis or abscesses. Even more interestingly, this depressive effect seemed only to occur in women. From a nutritional perspective, it is generally a good idea to steer clear of soft drinks, and instead aim for water. Coffee or tea is another option (and has a lot of health benefits), as long as you can avoid caffeine exposure in the afternoon so it does not disrupt sleep.

Edwin Thanarajah S, Ribeiro AH, Lee J, et al. Soft Drink Consumption and Depression Mediated by Gut Microbiome Alterations. JAMA Psychiatry. 2025;82(11):1095–1102. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2025.2579

full text: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/article-abstract/2839019