Table 3.

A list of recommendations for future trials of ketamine treatment based on current findings.

1. Preparation

•Include first person accounts of ketamine experience in the preparation for infusions

•Emphasise that the experience may involve paranoid thoughts and altered perception of time, though any affects are transient

•Include a debrief at the end of the ketamine infusions to discuss potential feelings of loss and sadness associated with the end of treatment

•Screen individuals for tendency towards paranoid beliefs

2. Setting

•Clinical and professional setting may be reassuring for ketamine naïve participants

•Trusting relationships with the trial staff appear to be crucial in providing a safe setting

3. Measurements

•Include questionnaires measuring a wide range of the psychoactive effects of ketamine (religious, mystical, spiritual, and dissociative) including Hood's Mysticism Scale, Psychotomimetic States Inventory, and 5-Dimensional Altered Consciousness Rating Scale

•Measure motivations and expectations from treatment using measures such as The Stages of Change Readiness and Treatment Eagerness and The Alcohol Abstinence Self-Efficacy Scale

•Development of a new measurement capturing the wide range of acute experiences reported under ketamine infusions: dissociative, religious, mystical and spiritual, and otherworldly experiences as well as perceptual distortions

4. Dosing and Administration

•Consider titrating doses up according to individual experiences

•Consider multiple sessions based on individualised need/experiences

•Investigate the optimal number of doses