Ketamine & therapy help reduce alcohol addiction, study shows

The use of Ketamine alongside therapy could be essential for treating alcohol addiction, results from a new study indicate.

Biotechnology company Awakn Life Sciences released results from the first controlled study in the world to investigate Ketamine-Assisted Therapy for the treatment of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). 

The results of the study, which were published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, point to the use of Ketamine alongside therapy being able to assist in a reduction of alcohol addiction. The double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial included 96 patients with severe AUD. Patients were assigned to one of four groups, two of which included Ketamine being used alongside proprietary manualised therapy (KARE) or alcohol education. Patients in the other groups received a saline injection alongside therapy and alcohol education.

Patients receiving the KARE therapy received three ketamine infusions of 0.8mg/kg IV over 40 minutes. 

Findings show that Ketamine used alongside KARE therapy resulted in total abstinence in 162 of 180 days in the following six-month period, achieving an increase in abstinence from around 2% prior to the trial to 86% post trial. The study also examined the risks of relapse at six months and found that the Ketamine plus KARE group’s risk of relapse was 2.67 times less than the placebo plus alcohol education group. 

The study was conducted by University of Exeter (UoE) and led by professor Celia Morgan, professor of Psychopharmacology at UoE and Awakn’s Head of Ketamine-Assisted Therapy for Addiction. 

“Alcohol Use Disorder is [a] pervasive and persistent public health issue, affecting at least 390 million people globally. Treatment rates are low and relapse rates post treatment tend to be high. We urgently need new and more effective treatments,” said professor Morgan. “We found that controlled, low doses of ketamine combined with manualised psychological therapy can significantly increase post treatment abstinence rates. This is extremely encouraging, as we normally see three out of four people returning to heavy drinking within six months of treatment. With the data we’ve collected from this study, along with emerging data from other studies of ketamine to treat AUD, they strongly suggest that further trials of this treatment are warranted.”

Other results of the study show a reduction in heavy drinking days. At six months post trial there were only 12 heavy drinking days in the Ketamine plus KARE group. There was also a 10-fold decrease in the risk of mortality, 1 in 8 patients would have died within 12 months without treatment, that number decreased to 1 in 80 following the treatment.

Secondary outcomes of the study identified further positive results including improved liver function across several different markers, a statistically significant decrease in depression after three months and a decrease in anhedonia - the inability to experience pleasure.

Overall, Awakn states that the trial demonstrates that three infusions of ketamine can support abstinence from alcohol, especially when the treatment is combined with therapy. 

Awakn has now acquired the intellectual property (IP) to the therapy under license for use in further research, its clinics in Europe, and its partnerships globally.

Anthony Tennyson, Awakn’s Chief Executive added: “We are so pleased to see such encouraging results in an area of treatment that has been stagnant for so long, leaving so many people with little or sub-par options available to them. We will continue to support this research and future clinical trials as we push to bring a radical shift in the alcohol addiction treatment industry.”