I-TEAM: New ketamine clinic fills void for Department of Veterans Affairs

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Every 11 minutes, someone in the United States dies by suicide.

It’s a statistic our military families know all too well.

The latest census data shows veterans only make up about 6 percent of our country’s population, but they for 22 percent of all suicides, and it’s only getting worse.

That’s why the Department of Veterans Affairs is turning to what it calls “innovative treatment options” when traditional therapy or medicine doesn’t seem to be working.

However, as our I-TEAM investigation uncovered, just because the VA offers a treatment, it doesn’t necessarily mean that treatment is available at your local VA.

In 2019, the VA approved a drug commonly used as an anesthetic for veterans with treatment-resistant depression.

Some say, no question, it saved their life, so the I-TEAM started asking questions.

5 years after it was approved, we found, the Augusta VA still doesn’t offer IV ketamine therapy.

In fact, our investigation uncovered 86 percent of VA Networks across the country don’t offer it, either.

So, if the government isn’t stepping up, who is?

Jason Pearce has a lot of photos from his two decades in the military.

First, he ed the Air Force.

When he retired, he was a Major in the Army.

His pictures from his time in the service paint a picture of success: promotions, higher education, travel, and friendship.

Like his uniform, his smile eventually became his camouflage.

Meredith Anderson: “Do you feel like you have some trauma from your time in the military?”

Jason Pearce: “Yeah, definitely. I was diagnosed with PTSD and given disability on my way out.”

Jason’s wounds were deep, but he never saw traditional combat.

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As an Army Social Work Officer, he was instead embedded with each of his patients on their own private battlefields, helping them navigate everything from sexual assault to losing limbs to losing battle buddies, either to enemy forces or to suicide.

“I’ve been taking on other people’s military trauma my entire military career,” Jason said.

As he was taking pictures of his experiences in the military, he was also saving mental snapshots of his patients’ experiences.

Over time, it became a dangerous scrapbook known as “vicarious trauma.”

“You’re working, just pushing and pushing and pushing to get, to help everybody else,” Jason said. “Then you forget to help yourself.”

The Department of Justice warns those who work with victims – law enforcement, EMS, and people like Jason – are particularly at risk of vicarious trauma “due to their continuous exposure.”

As a nurse practitioner, Lauren Bursey saw it firsthand in military hospitals.

“There’s just not enough mental health care out there,” Lauren said. “A lot of patients I saw for knee pain, and I’m like, ‘we have way bigger problems than the knee pain,’ and so I would refer those patients to behavioral health.”

The military is notorious for long wait times and a shortage of behavioral health providers, so Lauren wanted another option for her patients.

Enter ketamine. This Summer, Lauren opened Elevated Health.

Meredith Anderson: “Have you ever seen something work this well?”

Lauren: “For this? No. Not at all. No.”

Not every VA offers IV ketamine therapy, though.

When the I-Team started digging, we found only 24 of them do.

Augusta is not on that list.

Only one in Georgia offers it.

None in South Carolina do.

The VA’s own website says “it’s top clinical priority is to prevent veteran suicide.”

Yet, years after the V-A approved it to treat severely depressed veterans, only 14 percent – 24 of the nation’s 172 VA Medical Centers – can offer IV ketamine.

Instead, people like Lauren are stepping in and opening private clinics.

Lauren Bursey: “I feel like this can help a lot of people.”

Meredith Anderson: “Then why isn’t it more widely available? Why are you the only one in Augusta?”

Lauren Bursey: “I will say ketamine has been a bad word for a long time.”

Most recently, ketamine has been in the spotlight because of Mathew Perry.

Just last week, federal authorities charged five people, including two doctors, in connection with Perry’s fatal drug overdose last year.

The ‘Friends” star was found unresponsive in his hot tub back in October.

In an Instagram post days before his death, Perry posted this photo of himself in that same hot tub.

His cause of death, the medical examiner ruled, was “the acute effects of ketamine.”

Perry had been treating his depression and anxiety with ketamine therapy, but levels found in his autopsy were enough to knock him out for surgery, far exceeding levels in his treatment.

Ketamine abuse is nothing new.

For decades – “Special K” was known as a “club drug” popular at raves.

It can cause hallucinations, and the DEA warns it has been used as a “date rape drug.”

Lauren says you shouldn’t confuse ketamine abuse with ketamine therapy.

Unlike the street drug, she says the ketamine she uses is highly regulated.

It’s also given in her office in a highly controlled setting where the patient is constantly monitored, and the dose is small enough that the patient is still in control.

She says the results have been nothing short of amazing.

“I mean, I have a guy who’s 21 days sober, and hasn’t been in seven years, Lauren said. “It’s a big deal.”

After getting the help he needed, Jason went back to helping others as a therapist.

He wondered if ketamine therapy might help him and some of his patients, so he made an appointment with Lauren.

“As soon as I came out of that first session with her, I took the mask off, and I said, ‘Everybody needs access to this,’ Jason said.

“Everybody should have access to this.”

The recommended protocol is 6 infusions in 28 days, but Jason says he saw an immediate and life-changing effect after just one infusion.

Jason Pearce: “I don’t want to say free -- but free.

Meredith Anderson: “Really?

Jason: “Yeah. Having to have pill caddy for morning and night -- to no medications.”

Without medications, Jason says he’s free of its side effects, so he can be the best version of himself at work with his patients and at home with his family.

The VA also offers esketamine, a nasal spray. The FDA has approved it specifically as a treatment option for those with treatment-resistant depression.

The I-Team found 30 locations offer that, and while that’s more than the ones that can offer IV ketamine therapy, we found it’s still only 17 percent of all VA medical Centers.

The VA does have something called “community care” where private health care providers step in to fill in gaps in care.

Lauren, who’s husband is a veteran, is hoping to get her clinic on that list.

She says she is also looking at grants so local vets won’t have to pay out of pocket. If you are interested in learning more about Elevated Health, click here. Lauren says even though she opened her clinic with veterans in mind, you don’t have be a veteran to benefit from ketamine therapy.

The following is the list the I-TEAM received from the VA in Washington, D.C., when we requested which VA facilities offer ketamine therapy:

*Note: it includes both IV Ketamine and esketamine

Both ketamine and esketamine

We also received the following statement from the VA: “Providing Veterans with the best health care outcomes remains paramount for us at VA, and ketamine treatment with either intravenous (IV) ketamine or intranasal esketamine is one of those options for Veterans with treatment-resistant depression.

Ketamine use has grown steadily over the last five years. Since fiscal year 2023, 105 of 139 (75.5%) VA facilities have offered IV ketamine or esketamine to Veteran patients either within the VA health care system or through community care.

More than 1,800 Veterans received either IV ketamine or intranasal esketamine in FY23.”

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