Clinical trial: Can ketamine save the NHS £3.5 billion?

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and the Medical Research Council (MRC) are funding a new clinical trial to investigate whether ketamine-assisted therapy can help people with severe alcohol use disorder to stop drinking.

Patients are currently being recruited for the study, which is being led by the University of Exeter and will initially be carried out at eight NHS sites. Additional investment for the research is coming from the biotech company Awakn Life Sciences.

Promising results

The Phase III trial builds on earlier positive results from a Phase II trial that found that a combination of ketamine and therapy was safe and tolerable for patients with severe alcohol dependence. Participants increased their alcohol consumption from daily to 86% of the time (over a six-month period).

“More than half a million adults in the UK have serious alcohol problems that require help, but only one in five of them receive treatment,” said study leader and professor at the University of Exeter, Celia Morgan.

She added: “The success rate of current treatments is low. We know that three out of four people who stop drinking alcohol return to heavy drinking after a year. This new study helps fill the gap in the urgent search for new treatment options.”

“We are delighted that the NIHR has funded this study. It is the largest study in the world on the combination of ketamine with psychotherapy.”

Alcohol-related harm is estimated to cost the NHS £3.5 billion a year.

The study

As part of the multicenter study “Ketamine for the Reduction of Alcohol Relapse” (MORE-KARE), patients are randomly assigned to two study groups. Each group receives a different dose of ketamine infusion and psychological support from a therapist. The dosage and type of support are randomly assigned by computer.

Participants monitor themselves by keeping a drinking diary and taking a breathalyzer test, and they also undergo in-person follow-up examinations after three and six months.

Exeter and Oxford are the locations where recruitment is currently underway, with more expected shortly. The study is funded by Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation Programme.

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