Join us Thursday, November 16 at 9:00pm ET for a live, interactive tweetchat with Steven P. Levine, MD, on the use of ketamine to treat depression. Topics to be discussed are subject to change but will likely include:
- Why there is a need for alternatives to antidepressants, like ketamine, for treating depression.
- How ketamine, a psychedelic club drug, ever became even a possibility for the treatment of depression.
- What makes ketamine a promising alternative to antidepressants and other standard depression care.
- What quality research there is to support the use of ketamine for depression.
- Whether patients and providers should be wary of using ketamine for depression, since the FDA has not approved ketamine for this use.
- Whether patients and providers should be concerned that the side effects of taking repeated small doses of ketamine are unknown.
- How patients with depression can afford ketamine, which runs from $400 to $800 per infusion and is rarely covered by insurance.
- How Dr. Levine responds to the American Psychiatric Association’s conclusion that ketamine isn’t ready for widespread use for treatment-resistant depression.
- Why some scientists are skeptical that ketamine is a good long-term solution to depression and how Dr. Levine responds to them.
- Whether or not esketamine and rapastinel look to be promising developments in this field.
- More…
How to Join the Chat
- Log into your Twitter account. Don’t have an account? Where have you been?! Just kidding, we don’t judge, but you should get one! It’s easy to create, and free. You’ll be glad you did.
- A couple minutes before 9:00pm ET on November 16, Search Twitter (top right of every Twitter page) for #PWChat.
- On the search results page, click Latest at the top left. This will show you all the latest tweets using the #PWChat hashtag. The page will automatically update every couple minutes, letting you know how many new tweets there are using the #PWChat hashtag.
- Answer questions, reply to other’s comments, or make a comment of your own as much and as often as you like. Just make sure to leave room in include #PWChat to make sure what you tweet is included in the chat. Otherwise, it won’t be seen.
- While you’re at it, be sure to follow @physicianswkly, @StevenPLevineMD, and @KTCPartnership!
About Dr. Levine
Stephen P. Levine, MD, founded Ketamine Treatment Centers in 2011. Though he is a psychiatrist who places great emphasis on the importance of psychotherapy, medication is often a necessary component of treatment, and he was dissatisfied with the relatively ineffective available options with burdensome side effects. Dr. Levine pioneered a protocol for the clinical use of ketamine infusions, has directly supervised many thousands of infusions, and has helped establish similar programs across the country and around the world. Dr. Levine has partnered with Dr. Anand Dugar, a board-certified anesthesiologist, combining the expertise of both psychiatry and anesthesia to provide unrivaled, world-class care for the treatment of major depression, bipolar depression, postpartum depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), fibromyalgia, and pain syndromes. Today, they are proud to have a growing network of centers around the country bringing this important treatment closer to home for millions more.
