Episode 23: Ketamine’s Therapeutic Potential: Practical Considerations for Clinical Use

John Hartberg, B.Sc., M.D. Candidate

Ketamine is quickly gaining popularity for it's therapeutic value for it's use in treatment-resistant depression and PTSD therapy. This clinical interest has been accompanied by an impressive array of biological and behavioral studies corroborating its antidepressant properties. The first part of this presentation will look at the use of oral ketamine in an outpatient clinical practice in Brisbane, Australia, where a retrospective chart review was conducted on a cohort of patients who had been treated for diagnosed psychiatric conditions. In the second part of the presentation, we’ll examine the latest research on ketamine’s role in psychiatric treatment. 

John Hartberg, B.S., is a medical student at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, where he is conducting research at a psychiatric practice using oral ketamine for treatment-resistant depression and PTSD. He holds a B.S. in Neuroscience from the University of Minnesota. John previously served as study coordinator for the MAPS-sponsored MDMA therapy study in Marin County. Prior to that, he held an internship with MAPS and compiled data from ibogaine and MDMA studies. He has an interest in medicine in remote and underserved communities, having worked with underserved communities in the Peruvian Amazon, Cambodia, Standing Rock, and the South Pacific.