Bipolar depression can make everything feel slow, dark, and impossible.
Even basic things — getting out of bed, taking a shower — can feel out of reach.

In this episode of Bipolar Talk, we go inside the KITE Trial in Australia, a placebo-controlled clinical study investigating low-dose ketamine for bipolar depression.

My guest is Nikki Read, a clinical research nurse at the University of Melbourne (Department of Psychiatry), who also works in a ketamine clinic at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

We discuss:

• Why bipolar depression can be harder to treat than unipolar depression

• Why antidepressants may fail (and can risk mood switching)

• What ketamine is, what “dissociation” means, and why set & setting matter

• How the trial works step-by-step and why safety is central

• The ethical role of placebo and the open-label ketamine phase

• Why building hope — with realistic expectations — can be life-changing

🎙 Bipolar Talk — the podcast where we turn bipolarity into an opportunity.
👉 Learn more: hopestage.com