We secured our client, Klarity Ketamine Clinic of Las Vegas, an interview by Courtney Perna of Las Vegas Now on KLAS-TV. Dr. Christian Munk discusses ketamine therapy while promoting his practice. This is their second live interview, and boosted their web traffic by over 100%. We also designed, developed and deployed their branding and website.
Full Transcript
Courtney Perna: Did you know that suicide is the number two cause of death among adolescents? I was shocked by that and while many teens are being treated for anxiety or depression with prescriptions, experts say 20% of those kids are actually resistant to drugs like that. One of those experts is my next guest. Please welcome Dr. Christian Munk of Klarity Ketamine Clinic. Thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate It. Shocking statistics that all so many kids are resistant to traditional prescriptions!
Dr. Christian Munk: Yes, we’ve seen a very large increase in the number of patients that are adolescents that have come to our clinic seeking help for their depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.
CP: And oftentimes, that medicine, or the pill form, is actually causing more suicidal thoughts, the opposite of what we want to be doing .
CM: It can be. Typically, our patients are those who have tried other traditional medications and have failed. They’ve tried the pills. They’ve tried the therapy and haven’t had the results that they want. So the infusions that we offer with ketamine have a profound and quick effect on many of these patients. In fact we have an 80% success rate in treating these patients.
CP: So it is an IV infusion that you do. I mean your office is beautiful. It’s a very relaxing setting. And it’s not just adolescents. You’re treating many adults too. What exactly happens?
CM: Patients come in and they sit down in a chair. We start a small IV. We run an infusion of the medication ketamine for about an hour. It’s a sub-anesthetic dose, so patients have almost a dreamlike state during the infusion. Most of the time it’s very pleasant, relaxing. We put on some music, maybe put on a video, have them look at pictures or photos, and after the infusion is over, 15 minutes later, they walk out the door.
CP: So when you’re seeing a dreamlike state, does that kind of just help our mind and our bodies relax? Or how does it actually help? Just kind of shutting off and just kind of being in a happy place for a while?
CM: Well, I’m convinced that a part of the treatment therapy is the dissociation that occurs between your mind and your body for that brief period of time. It is a very unique experience, especially for those who’ve never had a medication that causes some dissociation like that, but it is a therapeutic part for sure. The medical part that occurs later on are changes, chemical changes, that occur in the brain using glutamate as the neurotransmitter rather than some of the other common neurotransmitters like serotonin and so on that other drugs target.
CP: There’s a lot of information behind this, but you can’t really argue with an 82%, you know, success rate. So what kind of things are you treating?
CM: We’ve had amazing responses in people who suffer from major depressive disorder, suicidal ideation, severe anxiety states, PTSD. In addition, we’re also using it to treat people who are suffering from post-addiction withdrawal syndrome, which is the cravings that occur after somebody is detoxed off of opiates, meth, and so on. These are very important issues right now in our Community. Drugs and alcohol addiction as well as major depression and suicidal ideation. So we’re having some amazing success and as you mentioned our success rate. I don’t think there’s anything out there that even comes close to approximating the success rate, and the cool thing is it works so quick.
CP: Yeah.
CM: Within one or two infusions, patients notice a very big difference.
CP: And you said, you know, there’s not a lot of that happening out there. In fact, they’re the only one in Nevada that’s using the ketamine to kind of to treat these symptoms. Now historically, ketamine was used as an anesthesia. He’s actually a practicing anesthesiologist, and so you kind of stumbled upon how this can be useful in other ways. Not just to knock you out but that dreamlike relaxing state.
CM: It was originally developed as a battlefield anesthetic for the Vietnam War way back in the 1960s because it has a very nice safety profile. We give it in a sub-anesthetic dose, and we’re able to see the changes occur very quickly in patients. They did some studies and saw that some of the Vietnam veterans that have this medication had a lower incidence of PTSD. They also looked at those who’d received it both in the operating room and in the emergency room as a sedative or as an anesthetic had almost complete reversal of their depressive or anxiety symptoms after a single dose. So all of these things got put together, and the National Institute of Health, Yale, several other academic institutions, realized that there was something very exciting going on with a drug that was almost 60 years old.
CP: Yeah. New uses. New good uses for it. Thank you so much Dr. Munk. I really appreciate it. More information on Klarity Ketamine Clinic of Las Vegas, call (702) 213- 6899 or click on KlarityClinic.com. And don’t forget to ask about the discounts to veterans, first responders, and victims of the 1 October shooting here in Vegas