Author: Leonor Riso
Saturday, September 4, 2024
Two patients used this psychedelic, combined with psychotherapy, to treat anxiety and resistant depression. They tell SÁBADO about their experience.
Two months ago, "the fear of dying at any moment" was a constant in Vanda Guerreiro's life. She was always on the lookout for anything due to the severe allergies to animal protein and cocoa that she has suffered from since the age of 13. Her anxiety made her swap Cascais for the outskirts of Castelo Branco, where she works in isolation at home and avoids dinners at friends' houses. Today, she jokes about wanting to eat chocolate again - "I'd have to do allergy tests first" - but now talks lightly about the subject. This is thanks to psychotherapy treatments assisted by the psychedelic ketamine. "Something seems to have come out of me," she says. "I can now go out into the world without so many fears. Without feeling so alone."
The 47-year-old creative director was treated at The Clinic of Change in Lisbon, one of the first private clinics to offer this treatment in Portugal. "It's a substance that has long been known as an anesthetic, but it also has psychedelic and antidepressant effects in much lower doses," explains psychiatrist and clinical director Victor Amorim de Sousa to Sábado.
On August 3rd, Vanda Guerreiro entered the clinic fasting for her first ketamine session. Days before, she had undergone a medical assessment (hypertension, heart failure and a history of psychotic outbreaks prevent treatment) and simulations of the moment, so that on this day as little as possible would be foreign to her.
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Read the full article in Sábado.
This article was also presented as a television report, broadcast by Canal Now.
The report also followed the story of two patients from The Clinic of Change and gathered testimonies from our clinical team about the Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy program.
