What is Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD)?

Alcohol Use Disorder is a chronic disease which occurs when a patient loses his/her ability to control alcohol drinking due to physical and emotional dependence on alcohol. This can lead to negative physical, social and even legal consequences. Contrary to general belief that it is always due to person’s bad choice, it is a chronic brain disease that can be inherited.

Is Alcohol Use Disorder treatable?

AUD is a treatable disease that can go in remission with appropriate social, family and psychological support and therapy but unfortunately relapse risk remains elevated even after years. This is where ketamine treatment can help.

KURE (Ketamine Use in RElapse Reduction) of Alcohol Use Disorder

Ketamine has been in use for decades as an anesthetic agent but for last 10-15 years, outpatient intravenous ketamine use has seen exponential increase due to ketamine’s beneficial effect in mental health illnesses. Recently in a double-blind placebo-controlled phase 2 clinical trial, researchers have found that patients who received intravenous ketamine infusions along with alcohol education/psychotherapy were able to stay off alcohol for longer than the patients who received placebo. A new multimillion phase III trial is in fact in progress across seven NHS sites in England to further confirm whether ketamine could help with alcohol relapse reduction.

According to Dr. Goyal, a leading ketamine specialist in Long Island “Patients who have severe alcohol use disorder, develop maladaptive reward memories (MRMs) in the brain. Although these maladaptive memories get weakened during alcohol abstinence, they always remain active enough leading to increased alcohol relapse risk. This is where we are gathering more and more clinical evidence that ketamine can help in alcohol relapse by rewriting these weakened maladaptive memories and helping patients stay sober for longer.”

Ketamine Wellness Medical Practice in NY highly encourages intravenous ketamine therapy for patients who are in alcohol recovery phase and would like to stay sober longer. Feel free to ask for free consultation if you or someone you know are struggling with chronic alcoholism.