Alcohol and benzodiazepines (often called benzos) use appear to make low-dose ketamine treatments less effective. Benzos like Xanax, Ativan, Ambien, Valium, Klonopin, and others are commonly prescribed as anti-anxiety medications and sleeping pills. Neither alcohol nor benzos are good for treating the root causes of symptoms – instead they generally mask the symptoms so that you are less likely to notice or care about the symptoms, and possibly the enjoyable things in life as well.
In general, the less alcohol or benzodiazepines a patient can realistically take, the better for their health and for improving the results of low-dose ketamine treatments for mood disorders. The following are resources for learning more about how alcohol and benzodiazepines work and accessing help for decreasing or stopping use.
