Welcome to Back from the Abyss. I'm Dr. Craig Hecock.

First, a couple of announcements.

I have another opening or two for consultation and mentoring for psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric in P's, PAs, or master's level therapists.

You can reach out to me through my website and I'll give you a call and we can discuss possibly

working together. Second, I'll again be co-facilitating a ketamine

training with Dori Lewis and Shannon Hughes in Colorado this coming March 24. I'll put a link to

the training in the show notes, or you can learn more at Elemental Psychedelics.com forward slash

ketamine training. Today's episode is based on my clinical observations of over 3,000 intravenous and

intramuscular ketamine sessions that I've done over the last six years, typically at the

dissociative threshold or with full dissociation, which means that patients are deep enough

in the experience that they lose awareness of their bodies and their room,

and they experience something ineffable and wondrous, invariably also very, very strange.

My first two years were all intramuscular IM sessions, and in those I sat with patients throughout.

While the last four years have been mostly infusions IVs, where I sit with patients before and after the treatments.

My observations do not speak to what happens in lower-dose sessions, whether oral, nasal,

IM, or IV, where patients are able to talk and have some ability to interact with their

therapist or guide. Another way of saying this, my conclusions today are those of over 3,000 fully

psychedelic, not psychedelic, ketamine sessions, primarily to address treatment-resistant depression,

suicidality, and depression arising out of trauma and PTSD. Lessons from 3,000 sessions of psychedelic cap, or ketamine-assisted

psychotherapy, that would be a very different topic in episode. Some of the most basic

questions about ketamine are still under investigation.

Like, what is the ideal dose range?

...