FWD: RSDHope-Info on Ketamine Low Dose Infusion Study

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From: byrd45 (Original Message) Sent: 2/21/2006 4:45 PM
INFORMATION ABOUT THE LOW-DOSE KETAMINE INFUSION STUDY

HOW KETAMINE ITSELF WORKS

Many of you have asked how the Study with Doctor Harbut is progressing. I know quite a few of you are on the waiting list for the low-dose ketamine treatment or have asked about it. I recently talked to Doctor Harbut and he told me the following;

1) He began treating the first patients on the list last month and so far the success rate has been excellent, even better results than he had in Arizona, which were great! I have talked with some of the patients myself and they wanted me to share with you that they have gone to zero RSD pain! They still have the side effects, as discussed by the other case studies on the website but the pain itself is gone. Now they have to rebuild their strength.

2) The waiting list now contains nearly 300 names so they are no longer even taking names for the list. The process itself is very labor-intensive. It demands a great deal of Doctor Harbut's and the nursing staff's time so the number of patient's they can do in a month is limited. The University is constantly seeking new sources of funding and space and hopes to expand the program in order to take more patients on to work through the list faster, but until they can get the list down to a manageable size they will not take any more names.

Anticipating your next question, I do not know of anyone else who is doing the exact same treatment as Doctor Harbut. There are Doctors who are doing versions of the same treatment, but for some reason, I suspect the cost and labor involved, they are cutting corners and doing mostly outpatient versions which do not have the same results. The outpatient versions require you to repeat the procedure many times to maintain relief, if you get any, and the cost is extreme. The hope is that Doctor Harbut can get enough data quickly enough and get FDA approval so insurance companies, and then hopefully Medicare, will start paying for the procedure which can cost upwards of $10,000 for a 4 day infusion.

3) You can read about the Low-dose infusion and the case studies on our website;
http://www.rsdhope.org/ShowPage.asp?PAGE_ID=82

4) You can download a PDF file and learn how ketamine works by visiting here;
http://www.rsdhope.org/Showpage.asp?PAGE_ID=82&PGCT_ID=3637

5) You can visit the Penn State website, specifically the Pain Management Section, here;
http://www.rsdhope.org/Showpage.asp?PAGE_ID=82&PGCT_ID=3638m

As soon as we have articles from the new patients we will post them to the website.

Peace - Keith