Nonmedical and medical ketamine use with Owen Bowden-Jones and Arun Sahai

In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth speaks to Professor Owen Bowden-Jones from Central North-West London NHS Foundation and Mr Arun Sahai from Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals NHS Trust, both in the UK. The interview covers an editorial they wrote with Professor Paul Dargan on responses to non-medical and medical ketamine use, including concerns about the increasing harms from illicit ketamine and excitement about the potential therapeutic value of ketamine.

We apologise for the sound quality at points during this episode, but we promise its worth the listen!

· Ketamine and its uses [01:15]

· Why ketamine is listed as an essential medicine by the World Health Organisation [01:59]

· The differing uses of ketamine: an essential medicine, a novel therapeutic drug, and a recreational drug [3:00]

· Ketamine’s damage to the urinary tract and the liver [04:30]

· Available treatments for the physical harms of ketamine [07:45]

· Whether substance use treatment services in the UK are fit-for-purpose when it comes to ketamine [11:06]

· Some of the reasons why is ketamine a popular drug now [15:38]

· The potential therapeutic value of ketamine for many disorders [17:29]

· The importance of communicating information to people who use ketamine [19:19]

About Arun Sahai: Mr Arun Sahai, PhD, FRCS (Urol), BSc (Hons.), is a Consultant Urological Surgeon in Functional urology (bladder dysfunction, incontinence, uro-neurology and urinary tract reconstruction) at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals NHS Trust and an Honorary Reader within King’s College London. He is the current chair of the section of functional and reconstructive urology at the British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS). He is the lead for undergraduate education in surgery for King's College London. His research interests include various aspects of benign bladder dysfunction and prostate cancer survivorship. He is active in both commercial and non-commercial clinical trials and has published more than 100 peer reviewed international papers and more than 15 book chapters.

About Owen Bowden-Jones: Professor Owen Bowden-Jones CBE is a Consultant in Addiction Psychiatry at the CNWL Club Drug Clinic, London and an Honorary Professor at University College London. In 2010, Owen founded the CNWL Club Drug Clinic, an innovative service offering treatment for emerging drug problems, including novel psychoactive substances and club drugs. National roles include President of the Society for the Study of Addiction, Chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, Policy Fellow at the University of Cambridge, trustee at the charity Student Minds and Registrar at the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Owen is the past-Chair of the Faculty of Addictions at the Royal College of Psychiatrists and was previously a national clinical adviser to Public Health England.

Original editorial: Responding to medicinal and non-medicinal ketamine use https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70075

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