Ketamine assisted TSM: Ketamine infusion therapy works to reduce alcohol relapses, but can ketamine treatment be used with TSM?

Does ketamine for TSM work? The Sinclair Method is a protocol to help people to reduce their alcohol consumption gradually. Also known as pharmacological extinction, TSM is essentially a way for a person with alcohol use disorder to taper off of alcohol.

Could ketamine combined with psychological therapy help to make The Sinclair Method more effective? In order to discuss this topic further, it will be helpful to first discuss various ways to treat alcoholism and the different ways in which ketamine therapy is used for mental health conditions, including alcohol addiction.

Traditionally, alcohol detox facilities and alcohol rehabs have instructed clients to quit alcohol intake cold turkey, and then they medically treat them for alcohol withdrawal. After the detox process is complete, the rehab applies the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous to help the client live one day at a time without drinking.

The problem with traditional AA-based alcohol abstinence treatment is that a heavy drinker who quits cold turkey will often develop an alcohol craving within a few months of getting sober. While the 12-steps may help the recovering alcoholic to work through cravings, they are at high risk for alcohol relapse.

The Sinclair Method is a medication-assisted treatment program for helping someone with alcohol dependence to reduce alcohol consumption gradually. The way it works is that the person takes a Naltrexone pill one hour before having a drink.

Naltrexone reduces cravings and compulsions to keep drinking. Over time, people who follow TSM tend to drink less and less, with many quitting alcohol altogether.

What is the KARE protocol, and how does ketamine help someone with alcohol problems to stop drinking?

As previously discussed, a person with severe alcohol use disorder is at high risk of relapse, especially if they quit alcohol cold turkey. How can the risk of relapse be minimized?

KARE stands for Ketamine for Reduction of Alcoholic Relapse. The KARE protocol is administered in a ketamine clinic.

In order to comply with the KARE standard, the clinic will give a ketamine infusion to the client several times per week, for up to six treatments or more. In addition to the ketamine IV infusions, the client will also get psychotherapy to address their alcohol addiction.

Ketamine assisted therapy is proving to be highly effective in reducing relapse rates for patients with alcohol abuse disorder. Relapses are reported to be reduced by over 80%.

Interestingly, ketamine for alcohol addiction is improving relapse rates for patients who were detoxed cold turkey from alcohol. Cold turkey alcohol detox leads to the alcohol deprivation syndrome which increases cravings and relapse rates. Hence, ketamine is being used to address a major shortcoming of traditional alcohol detox.

How might ketamine treatments help people who follow The Sinclair Method?

While we might look at ketamine vs TSM to evaluate which treatment is better for the individual person with alcohol use disorder, I believe that it is best to consider how these protocols might complement each other. Therefore, I will not be discussing The Sinclair Method vs ketamine therapy, only how the two treatments might work synergistically.

TSM is an addiction treatment for alcohol addiction that helps the patient to avoid the alcohol deprivation syndrome, cravings, and relapse. Naltrexone helps the patient to reduce alcohol intake over time.

Unfortunately, there are some patients who have a rocky start with TSM. They may find that naltrexone does not help them to decrease drinking as much as they would like.

Or, they may feel stuck, where they have reduced alcohol consumption, but they are not able to break through and reduce to either zero intake or near zero intake. In fact, some experts believe that there is a small percentage of the population who will not respond to TSM.

How could ketamine therapy help people who have difficulty with The Sinclair Method? Ketamine works very well with mental health conditions, such as anxiety, depression, OCD, PTSD, and others.

Ketamine also helps with addictions, reducing cravings and reducing relapse rates, particularly for alcoholics trying to quit alcohol. Many of the uses of ketamine were discovered during regular use.

For example, if a patient received ketamine for depression treatment, and it was noted that they had less alcohol cravings, the doctor would note a possible new use for ketamine in treating alcoholism. This discovery would lead to a clinical trial, such as the studies done to demonstrate the efficacy of the KARE protocol.

Ketamine is a safe and effective treatment option.

One aspect of ketamine therapy is the safety profile of the drug. Ketamine is very safe when administered in a medical setting.

A patient having difficulty reducing alcohol intake with TSM might consider visiting a ketamine clinic for treatment. Mixing alcohol and ketamine is not a good idea, so the doctor would have to determine if IV infusion therapy is safe for the individual patient.

Another alternative to IV ketamine infusion therapy is low dose sublingual ketamine. The clinic doctor could prescribe ketamine troches that dissolve under the tongue, to be taken daily.

Ketamine is known to be a brain healing therapy that reduces central nervous system inflammation and helps with neurogenesis. The dendritic connections between neurons grow, helping the brain to heal and overcome problems, including depression, addiction, and even chronic pain.

In fact, ketamine is also known to help reduce withdrawal symptoms from drugs such as opioids and alcohol. It is possible that ketamine assisted therapy combined with The Sinclair Method could be a superior alcohol addiction treatment protocol over ketamine alone or TSM alone.

For a person with a history of drug abuse and drug addiction, is ketamine addiction a risk?

While ketamine has been used as a recreational drug, it is not known to be highly addictive. And, it is unlikely that a ketamine clinic patient will become addicted with medically supervised therapy.

Currently, substance abuse with ketamine is far less common than it was in the past. Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic drug, which is used frequently in the medical field for twilight anesthesia.

Drug abusers quickly learn that using an anesthesia drug to get high is not a pleasant experience. Additionally, any drug used on the streets that is not obtained from a legal pharmacy or dispensary could contain the deadly opioid, fentanyl.

What is the next step for a person interested in TSM and ketamine combined?

If you are interested in ketamine with TSM therapy for alcohol use disorder, you may want to consider seeing a concierge telemedicine TSM doctor and trying TSM alone. Ketamine in addition to TSM should be reserved for patients who have difficulty reducing their alcohol intake with naltrexone.

If your doctor agrees that ketamine assisted TSM might be right for you, then they may decide to prescribe ketamine sublingual troches for home use. Or, they may refer you to a ketamine clinic for IV infusion therapy.

In any case, to get the best results from ketamine assisted therapy, the psychotherapy component is very important. Even TSM advocate, Claudia Christian has publicly recommended that TSM should be accompanied by talk therapy.

And, we know through studies of the KARE protocol that talk therapy is also important with ketamine treatments for best results. Hence, with TSM alone, ketamine alone, or TSM and ketamine together, psychotherapy must be a part of the process.

If you are at the stage where you are still drinking, and you are considering which treatment is best to start with, the first step should be visiting your primary care doctor. Your family doctor will help you to way the risks, benefits, and alternatives of each treatment for alcoholism, gray area drinking Fort Lauderdale, or alcohol binge disorder to assist you in making the best possible informed decision.