\
IN a TYPICAL week, Grant would knock back six bottles of red wine and, at the weekend, a litre of vodka – that is, until he tried ketamine.
“It was truly profound,” he recalls of his experience with the powerful anaesthetic, which he claims cured him of his alcoholism.
3
3
Even though there is a can of beer in his fridge and some fancy spirits in the cupboard, the 57-year-old insists he will never touch them.
The events manager, from Somerset, tells Sun Health: “I don’t even think of myself as being in recovery because the urge to drink is completely gone.”
Typically people think of ketamine as either a horse tranquilliser, medical anaesthetic or a party drug — nicknamed K, Special K and KitKat.
But the Class B drug is now attracting attention as a treatment for mental ill health.
In the 1990s, ketamine was discovered to rapidly help those with depression and, in more recent years, anxiety and PTSD.
Now it is being explored for addictions, including smoking, opiates and cocaine.
Grant is part of the largest study to date of ketamine alongside therapy for alcoholism, conducted by the University of Exeter.
The Ketamine for Reduction of Alcohol Relapse trial is recruiting 280 people across seven NHS sites.
If successful, the treatment could be available on the NHS in five years.
Grant spent his 20s and 30s living the high-energy life of a DJ, spinning tracks in superclubs around the world, with alcohol flowing freely.
‘Going to die’
But it wasn’t until he returned to the UK in 2006 that booze became his crutch.
I was drinking so much I was definitely on the road to being someone that was either going to die of an alcohol-related disease or end up with a very, very poor quality of life
Grant from Somerset on his alcoholism
Confronted with the death of his mum, at 84, a crumbling marriage, and job redundancy all at once, he turned to alcohol for solace.
What started as a glass of wine with dinner escalated to six bottles a week, eventually spiralling to vodka-fuelled binges which would sometimes end with trips to A&E.
Grant says: “I was drinking so much I was definitely on the road to being someone that was either going to die of an alcohol-related disease or end up with a very, very poor quality of life.”
He tried to kick the habit dozens of times but always relapsed — until 2019, when he began the trial.
Ketamine has largely gained popularity as a party drug due to its euphoric, trance-like effects.
High doses can lead to users falling into a “K-hole” — where people have little control of their bodies, essentially becoming a dead weight.
Although it is not considered an addictive substance, people may become psychologically dependent.
Long-term abuse has been linked with kidney and liver damage and the so-called “ketamine bladder syndrome”, in which a person may experience pain, incontinence and “K cramps”.
Actor Matthew Perry’s death shone a harsh light on the dangers of ketamine, which he had talked of using to help with his depression.
An autopsy determined the Friends star, who had battled addiction all his life, had died from “the acute effects of ketamine” after being found face-down in his hot tub in October last year, aged 54.
His death initially appeared accidental, but an investigation led to the arrest of five people who had supplied Perry with the drug.
It raised lots of questions about ketamine therapy and how safe it is for already vulnerable people. There are ketamine clinics across the US, but there is also an unregulated black market.
Prof Celia Morgan, a professor of psychopharmacology leading University of Exeter trial, tells Sun Health: “Street ketamine is dangerous because it can render you very unresponsive to the external world and unable to move, so accidents such as drowning, as Matthew Perry sadly did, are more likely.
“We think the chance of addiction to ketamine following the study is low.”
Prof Morgan revealed the most important part of the trial was not ketamine, but therapy, which helped to “turbo-charge” the process.
We ask people to think about old problems in new ways, which can be tough if people are stuck in a rut as we see with alcohol
Prof Celia Morgan
It works by increasing glutamate, a brain chemical important for mood, learning and memory, and boosting neuroplasticity — when new connections are made in the brain, making a person more receptive to new ideas.
She says: “We ask people to think about old problems in new ways, which can be tough if people are stuck in a rut as we see with alcohol.”
Some 86 per cent of participants in early trial stages were abstinent at the six-month follow-up.
More than half a million adults in the UK have a serious alcohol problem, according to the charity Alcohol Change, and three in four who quit relapse after a year.
Grant had never used ketamine and says he was nervous that morning in 2019 when he stepped into the clinician’s room.
‘My ego dropped away’
He was given a low dose of ketamine intravenously which would accumulate to a moderate recreational dose over the 40-minute treatment time.
It took Grant until his second session to feel the full effects, at which point he “watched himself turn white and fly out of his body”.
Ketamine is a dissociative drug, which means users feel detached from reality and themselves.
I asked myself, ‘Grant, what do you want to do? Do you want to be that guy who drinks so much he loses his job or his house?
Grant from Somerset
Grant says: “I felt like it put me in my place in the universe and reminded me that my life is in my hands.
“I asked myself, ‘Grant, what do you want to do? Do you want to be that guy who drinks so much he loses his job or his house?’
“It was as if my ego dropped away and I felt I could access a part of my unconscious where I hadn’t gone before”.
The next day, Grant had cognitive behavioural therapy, which aims to help people manage their problems by changing the way they think.
During his sessions, Grant revisited his childhood, which he said was “full of love but lacked attention”.
He adds: “There were lots of us, which meant we probably didn’t get the attention we needed.
“I think that probably played into other parts of my life.
“It also made me revisit a time in my life when I didn’t rely on drink and would have an amazing time just drinking water.”
3
Grant has been sober for five years, and his life looks remarkably different.
He goes to CrossFit gym multiple times a week and has traded his drinking buddies for a circle of fitness enthusiasts.
Most evenings he spends at home with his partner and children.
“I’ve become the person I always wanted to be,” he says.
HOW IT HELPS
WHEN ketamine is used in research it is at a low dose in a controlled and safe environment.
It is employed alongside other forms of treatment, including therapy with a trained professional, to alter a person’s thinking and help them overcome issues including addiction and depression.
There are a number of gaps in scientific knowledge about the right dosage, effectiveness and safety of long-term use of ketamine in this way.
Therefore, the optimal use of ketamine to treat depression is not known and it is not currently approved for use in treating depression or any other mental health illness, unless in a research facility or in private clinics.
It is not recommended that people try it at home themselves without medical supervision.
