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As psychiatrists turn to psychedelics, treatment center in Bakersfield says ketamine offers patients hope

The Bakersfield Californian - 5/24/2021

May 23—Deirdra O'Neill had nearly lost hope. The 44-year-old former paramedic had been diagnosed with multiple auto-immune diseases, a degenerative disc disease and suffered from post traumatic stress disorder. She frequently battled intense pain that left her debilitated.

"I had to quit working and was declared permanently disabled," she said in a recent phone interview. "I was living for my kids. That's the only reason I was trying to fight things to be able to live."

But after undergoing a new form of psychiatric therapy, she says she feels like she has a new lease on life. Her pain has subsided, her PTSD has reduced, and she says she is able to stop taking some of the narcotic drugs she had been prescribed.

"The time I finished my first week of treatment, the following day, I was able to get on a motorcycle with my husband, we went to LA, I walked around a Harley shop," she said, an activity she previously would not have been able to do. "Then I turned around and went to a Dodger game and walked through Dodger Stadium."

That treatment, ketamine infusion therapy, arrived in Bakersfield to little fanfare in 2019. Throughout the pandemic, the clinic that treated O'Neill, the Ketamine Infusion Center, has largely flown under the radar. But after the purchase by Delic Corp., a psychedelic wellness platform, the company hopes to rapidly expand in the next few years.

Ketamine is an anesthetic medicine known for producing hallucinatory effects as well as its use as a horse tranquilizer. Recently, the drug has been turned to for its therapeutic uses. As psychiatry increasingly turns to psychedelic drugs for their therapeutic qualities, ketamine is being seen as a bellwether for the future.

The only psychedelic legally available to patients outside a clinical study, ketamine has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat patients with treatment-resistant depression as well as those experiencing suicidal ideation.

In Bakersfield, the Ketamine Infusion Center treats patients by injecting the drug through an IV. For about an hour, patients sit in a dimly-lit room, listening to music. Some take a nap.

"While you are disassociated on the ketamine, you are able to process without the depression or without the anxiety or without the obsessive disorder," said Matt Stang, CEO of Delic Corp. "Your brain operates without those issues and it allows you to understand that you can operate like that."

He described the process as brain reboot, like hitting CTRL+ALT+DELETE on a malfunctioning computer.

A relatively new frontier for psychiatry, research into the subject has blossomed recently, but many scientists say that more studies are needed before the therapeutic potential of drugs like LSD and MDMA can be fully known. Experts also caution those with known personality disorders like schizophrenia from pursuing the therapy.

Still, a story in the New York Times earlier this month referred to experts who said it was only a matter of time before the FDA approves more drugs for psychiatric use. The story said MDMA, a psychoactive drug associated with nightclubs, could be approved by 2023 while psilocybin, a psychedelic compound found in fungi, could be approved a year or two later.

"You'll see in a couple of years, a giant psychedelic clinic will be somewhere within driving distance of most large cities because people understand this is a way to get well when they have no other options," Stang said.

For treatment at the center in Bakersfield, people need a referral from a healthcare provider. Insurance companies may pay for some forms of the treatment.

For Delic Programming Director Sonny Diaz, he's seen improvement in his own mother, who underwent ketamine treatment for chronic depression. He hopes to see the therapeutic technique grow into mainstream acceptance.

"The big push right now in the world of ketamine is to really show the validity of ketamine so that insurance companies can really start utilizing this as a method," he said. "I think that the data will be out there soon, and hopefully again we'll be able to get this to a lot more people."

While it may seem surprising that the treatment has gained a foothold in Bakersfield, the word is spreading. Soon, the drug could be available for a wide number of maladies.

"I tell everyone about ketamine," O'Neill said, noting that she still suffered from her auto-immune diseases and a lower amount of chronic pain. "It's not a cure, but it's an amazing treatment."

You can reach Sam Morgen at 661-395-7415. You may also follow him on Twitter @smorgenTBC.

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