In this revisited episode of Beyond the Balance Sheet, Dr. Craig Heacock joins us. He is an adolescent and adult psychiatrist and addiction specialist in Colorado and the host and co-producer of the podcast Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories. First, Dr. Heacock gives us a brief history of ketamine from the last fifty years as an FDA-approved drug. We talk about how ketamine became a go-to treatment for resistant depression and bipolar disorder. Tune in as Dr. Heacock reveals how a state-of-the-art assessment delivery and follow-up for ketamine would look like.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• [02:00] Ketamine: a brief history of the past fifty years.  

• [05:00] How would a state-of-the-art assessment delivery and follow-up for ketamine look like?  

• [09:00] Who is running the ketamine clinics if there’s a shortage of psychiatrists?  

• [11:55] How money and profit drive some of this ketamine delivery. 

• [16:09] Dr. Heacock’s experience with individuals who abuse ketamine.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Ketamine is a go-to treatment for resistant depression and bipolar disorder.

• A state-of-the-art ketamine therapy involves a true psychiatric evaluation to see if there are other things that should be happening first.

• Ketamine does not replace medications; it augments them and helps them work better.

• Most people that are receiving ketamine treatments are very middle class.

LINKS MENTIONED:

craigheacockmd.com

Podcast: Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/back-from-the-abyss-psychiatry-in-stories/id1469826718

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LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-heacock-md-1a8618196

BIO:

Dr. Craig Heacock is an adolescent and adult psychiatrist and addiction specialist in Colorado and the host and co-producer of the podcast Back from the Abyss: Psychiatry in Stories. He was a co-therapist in the Phase 3 trial of MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for PTSD and has particular interest in the use of ketamine and other psychedelics to treat severe mood disorders and PTSD. He is a graduate of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and did his psychiatry training at Brown University.