Local man benefits from a psychedelic drug for his mental illness

He went into remission in 2000 but in 2011 it returned and it came back worse than before.

Finley always relied on anti-depressants and was taking up to 18 a day but they didn’t work.

His doctor then offered another option and possibly his last hope, a referral for ketamine treatment.

“That was a big breakthrough for me and it helped my depression, it’s helped my anger,” Finley said. “Certainly I have no suicidal thoughts right now.”

His first treatment was about four months ago and that was the first time in 5-6 years he hasn’t had a suicidal thought.

Treatment takes place every 2-3 weeks at a clinic in Saskatoon where ketamine is allowed to be administered through an IV in that province.

“Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic. It’s been around since the 60s and it’s used quite commonly in emergency rooms and operating theatres as an aesthetic agent,” psychiatrist Dr. Monika Hooper explained.

Dr. Hooper says it’s not enough to put a person to sleep and patients can have different experiences. Including visual hallucinations or an increased or decreased sense of emotion.

According to her clients, they have felt more engaged in their lives and are interested in doing daily tasks again.

“One woman told me she’s able to bake a cake now, whereas before she was so anxious and had so little energy that she couldn’t even bring herself to do that,” Dr. Hooper said.

Though ketamine has its benefits for mental illness, treatment is pricey.

Finley pays $525 for each session and paid the first out-of-pocket before his insurer came on board who now covers 100 percent of the cost.

To help get more coverage and support from the province, psychedelic drug research is ongoing, including at the University of Calgary.

Jim Parker funded the creation of the program this month.

His niece benefited from such treatments and he believes research is critical to make ketamine-assisted therapy more accessible.

“To get the governments to pay for this and insurance to pay for it, which I believe they will because I think it’s going to be a lot cheaper than the current medications that are being paid for,” Parker said.

Parker is the CEO of Bloom Psychedelic Therapy & Research Centre and says this whole area is very new. His clinic administers ketamine via lozenge and intramuscular injection. Though he says IV would be ideal.

He hopes in the next six months the Alberta College of Physicians will have more guidelines and support for ketamine treatment options.

Parker’s clinic is trying to offer affordable options with individual and group therapy sessions.

“We built into the price the ability to offer 10 percent of the treatments free of charge. So effectively when people pay for the full cost they’re sponsoring a tenth of treatment for somebody else,” Parker explained.

Meantime, Finley says he feels better than he has in years. He is also down to one pill a day.

Ketamine has been the main tool in his healing journey, but he says there are other steps needed to help manage his mental illness.

“Not one thing is going to fix it. The ketamine was my savior, but it’s not the only thing that keeps me going. You have to do these therapy sessions and the psychoanalytical sessions and all the rest of it and that’s okay,” Finley added.

Dr. Hooper adds ketamine treatment does cause increases in heart rate and blood pressure and you need a doctor’s referral to be seen at a clinic. IV treatments are also monitored by an anesthesiologist and a registered nurse.

by Chantal Wagner

Local man benefits from a psychedelic drug for his mental illness

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