Psychologist and pop culture icon of the 1960s, Timothy Leary, famously instructed San Francisco hippies to take psychedelic drugs in order to "turn on, tune in, and drop out." These days there's a movement in psychology, also centered in Northern California, advancing the use of psychedelics, as well. But the agenda is less about dropping out than about treating serious mental health challenges. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to two people about the intriguing new breakthrough that is ketamine therapy. First, we talk to Oli Mittermeier, the CEO and Co-founder of CIT Clinics to get a glimpse of his company’s innovative approach to ketamine treatment for depression, bipolar, and PTSD. Then, we hear from Reuben Steiger, an entrepreneur who found relief from decades of struggling with depression and bipolar through ketamine therapy.

Narrator 00:01 This is Sea Change Radio, covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

Reuben Steiger 00:14 My experience is dramatically different than those early journeys which were baffling, but now I know how to operate the machine in a little and it's different, but back then all I knew was that there was hope.

Narrator 00:32  Psychologist and pop culture icon of the 1960s. Timothy Leary famously instructed San Francisco hippies to take psychedelic drugs in order to turn on tune-in and drop out. These days there's a movement in psychology, also centered in Northern California, advancing the use of psychedelics as well. But the agenda is less about dropping out than about treating serious mental health challenges. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to two people about the intriguing new breakthrough that is ketamine therapy. First, we talked to Oli Mittermeier, the CEO and co-founder of CIT Clinics, to get a glimpse of his company's innovative approach to ketamine treatment for depression, bipolar and PTSD. Then, we hear from Reuben Steiger, an entrepreneur who found relief from decades of struggling with depression and bipolar through ketamine therapy.

Alex Wise 1:50 I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by Oli Mittermeier. He is the CEO and Co-founder of CIT Clinics that stands for combination infusion therapy. Oli, welcome to Sea Change Radio.

Oli Mittermeier 2:02 Thank you Alex. Great to be here.

Alex Wise 02:04 You specialize in ketamine therapy treatment and I wanted to learn a little bit more about that. Explain a little bit of the history of it and where it is now and then what you see is the future for this treatment.

Oli Mittermeier 02:18 Yeah, so Ketamine is an old drug. It's been around since the 60s. Was used extensively by soldiers in Vietnam. It's an analgesic, meaning it takes away pain. It doesn't affect core brainstem functions, which is what makes it unique. So you can give someone a ton of ketamine. They will continue. Breathing their blood pressure will change slightly, but it's super safe. Right so then, in the early 2000s, frankly just by sheer coincidence, some folks started realizing that Ketamine seemed to have a really positive effect on certain patients that were coming to the emergency room and struggling with suicidal ideations you know? So they had probably injured themselves. Had some kind of a you know trauma and they were given ketamine to take away the pain to perform whatever procedures. And then they found that those patients that had received Academy and a huge percentage of them reported a dramatic reduction or even cessation of suicidal ideations for days. You know, after ketamine, so some folks at the Yale School of Medicine said, well, Gee, we there's clearly something going on here with ketamine. And mental health. Let's explore this and so they designed some studies and they would give patients a sub anesthetic dose of ketamine.