Clinics specializing in the treatment of mental health problems are springing up all over the world. They are distinguished by the use of ketamine, a hallucinogenic drug used for recreational purposes but which, in medically controlled doses, does what antidepressants cannot. In Lisbon, it's called The Clinic of Change. It treats managers and entrepreneurs for burnout, among other pathologies.
Author: André Macedo
October 4th, 2024
The sale of medicines based on psychedelic drugs that help treat depression and other psychological illnesses will reach four billion euros in the next five years and is generating growing interest among investors. There's a bit of everything on the lab benches of the dozens of biotech start-ups researching this field of mental health, looking for a new blockbuster. The domino effect of this investment will be reflected in the products that will become increasingly visible on the market over the next few years and also in the number of patients undergoing treatment.
MDMA, ketamine [or ketamine], some species of mushroom and other substances are being intensively studied and tested. What was thought to be a relic of the 1960s, linked to the hippy movement, and which today is somewhat confined to recreational users and microdosing enthusiasts, has leapt from the margins and illegality to suddenly enter doctors' offices with the status of a medicine.
Lisbon has no start-up doing research in this sensitive area, but just over a year ago, in July 2023, this doldrums were broken with the opening of a clinic in Saldanha - approved by all national regulators - where ketamine is used to treat people suffering from long-term depression and various serious mental health problems. What is extraordinary about this movement that is beginning to arrive in Portugal is that even investment funds from countries with very tough criminal laws to combat recreational drug use - Singapore, for example - are investing more and more capital in this brave new world.
The explanation for this chemical gold rush is the most obvious of all when it comes to money: mental illness has gone from a pestilential embarrassment to a highly profitable and appetizing market. Psychiatric pathologies can be found in our next-door neighbor's house, they can affect the colleague we work with or they can even be found in our own home. [...]
At the antipodes of make-believe and prejudice
In the meantime, depression came rushing out of the closet and became a natural topic of conversation. [...]
Newspaper reports, television and radio reports reflect this sudden multiplication of cases, as if we were facing a pandemic of mental illness. Of course, not everything you read, hear or see is accurate, there is a lot of speculation and too many generalizations, but that doesn't mean it's a temporary mirage - the problem exists, it has scale and its seriousness cannot be questioned.
Doctors, lawyers, accountants, top athletes, managers and entrepreneurs - no one is immune to depression. The reasons are intrinsically linked to our way of life: pressure of any kind, long working hours, the constant connection encouraged by the cell phone, as well as intense professional competition... these are generally the common problems reported by more and more people - not forgetting biological causes or those related to traumatic experiences.
Depression, more or less severe, alcoholism and drug addiction - even in people who were, up to a certain point, professionally functional - have become increasingly prevalent and have become a serious public health problem. There is no shortage of patients, which means that the global market for antidepressants is worth almost 20 billion euros every year. In Portugal, 33,000 packages are sold every day, which means that 12 million boxes are prescribed in a year, which is equivalent to more than one box per inhabitant, although the distribution per capita is not this - even so, it is obviously an enormity.
With this widespread use of antidepressants, how is the mental health of the Portuguese? If these sales are taken literally, the diagnosis is crystal clear: we're at rock bottom, which is perhaps a huge exaggeration. If we look at this overconsumption with some detachment, then we realize that there may be a problem behind the problem - in addition to over-prescription and over-consumption, often without a prescription, there is the inability of conventional antidepressants to partially or totally resolve the illness they are supposed to treat. They get results, of course, and the clinical evidence demonstrates this, but there are still pathologies that remain beyond their chemical reach. This is precisely where the work of The Clinic of Change comes in.
Launched by a group of partners, including the former president of the National Association of Pharmacies, Paulo Duarte, and clinical psychologist Carla Mariz, in addition to carrying out conventional psychotherapy sessions, this medical team has increased its arsenal: to psychotherapy it has added ketamine, achieving, through this combination, a high cure rate among patients with resistant depression, that is, who do not respond to other types of treatment. [...]
