David Nutt: "Ketamine changes people's lives"

David Nutt is a psychiatrist and one of the world's leading experts in psychedelic medicine, directing the Centre for Psychadelic Research at the renowned Imperial College London, where he is Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology in the Brain Sciences division of the Department of Medicine. He is also Chief Research Officer of Awakn Life Sciences, the world leaders in Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy and international partners of The Clinic of Change, until June 2025.

After his appearance as keynote speaker at the First Scientific Conference of The Clinic of Change, David Nutt gave his testimony on Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy.

Consult our doctors for prior assessment and diagnosis:
218 071 715
geral@theclinicofchange.com

Read David Nutt's statements on Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy

Ketamine probably represents the greatest evolution in the treatment of mental illness in the last 40 years. Because it's a legal drug that works in people who haven't responded to previous treatments and has a very different impact on the brain. So it really is a revolution.

The problem with ketamine is that it's been around for a long time - on the one hand, it's a great advantage, it's very safe, but on the other hand it's also received bad publicity. And there are examples of people using it for recreational purposes. And so it's a controlled drug and it becomes more difficult for doctors to prescribe it for therapeutic use.

"Ketamine is very effective and very safe"

I don't think it's that difficult, and for most doctors it's quite simple, but the stigma against ketamine has acted as a deterrent and has meant that it hasn't been used as it should be. But now there is so much clinical data, there are so many trials and so many specialist groups using it, that I think we can reassure patients and doctors that it is actually very effective and very safe.

I don't think there's any doubt that ketamine therapy and, hopefully, in the future, other psychedelics, which can also be used at The Clinic of Change, but at the moment ketamine is the only one we have available. And it's true, it changes people's lives, it takes them out of depression, it takes them out of addiction, it takes them out of eating disorders, in a way that other treatments can't do. So the big difference is this: other treatments are like a band-aid that you put on the wound, but the wound doesn't heal. Ketamine, on the other hand, interrupts the process that is causing the wound. It heals the brain and so the brain is in a position to stay well for as long as it needs to.

"No other treatment for depression gets results in a day"

A really important benefit of ketamine is that it works very quickly. The effect is maximal a day later. And that's remarkable. No other treatment for depression has results within a day. So this has the ability to keep people out of hospital, get them out of hospital, and away from those deep depressive thoughts, which include the risk of suicide. So it's a revolution in mechanism and speed of response.

I think it's very exciting for people in Portugal to now have access to this new therapy. And the best thing is that it's going to be done in a structured way and with a program that has proven results. And in Portugal we will collect the same data that we collected in England, and so over the next few years we will build up a large body of knowledge about the best way to use ketamine and how effective it is, and which people are the target population, which problems we might have to deal with. Together we will become experts in the use of ketamine.

See other testimonials!