Single versus repeated sessions of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy for people with heroin dependence.

A prior study found that one ketamine-assisted psychotherapy session was significantly more effective than active placebo in promoting abstinence (Krupitsky et al. 2002). In this study of the efficacy of single versus repeated sessions of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy in promoting abstinence in people with heroin dependence, 59 detoxified inpatients with heroin dependence received a ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KPT) session prior to their discharge from an addiction treatment hospital, and were then randomized into two treatment groups.

Ketamine psychotherapy for heroin addiction: immediate effects and two-year follow-up.

Seventy detoxified heroin-addicted patients were randomly assigned to one of two groups receiving ketamine psychotherapy (KPT) involving two different doses of ketamine. The patients of the experimental group received existentially oriented psychotherapy in combination with a hallucinogenic ("psychedelic") dose of ketamine (2.0 mg/kg im).