Physiology Alumna Talks Veterans’ Health, Ketamine Therapy in FOX 5 DC News Interview

Ladan Eshkevari, a Georgetown professor emerita and 2009 graduate of BGE’s Physiology & Biophysics doctoral program (now part of the Ph.D. in Pharmacology & Physiology), appeared on FOX 5 DC news to speak about military veterans’ mental health and the potential of ketamine therapy to address treatment-resistant mental health challenges.

As a Georgetown faculty member, Eshkevari designed the Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia Program and served as its director. And in 2018, she founded Avesta Ketamine & Wellness, whose D.C.-area clinics use anesthetic ketamine and related drugs to treat veterans and other patients with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health conditions.

“We’re dealing with a lot of mental health issues in the veteran community,” Eshkevari told FOX 5 DC, including for many patients whose conditions don’t improve with common medications such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs). “You have to kind of switch the script and say, OK, what can we do that will work for these patients who don’t respond to other medications?”

Avesta treats patients using ketamine as well as esketamine, a ketamine derivative approved by the FDA in 2019 for patients with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder (MDD).

Ketamine was approved by the FDA in 1970 as an anesthetic, Eshkevari said, but “we’re using it now in a very different way. Tons of studies have shown that it worked, to the point where the FDA now approved a different version of it [esketamine] for mental health.”

Eshkevari emphasized that the veteran community faces unique mental health challenges due to higher prevalence of conditions such as severe depression and PTSD, as well as obstacles to care.

“Having the medication and the tools are one thing, but having access is another thing, and I think there are some serious mitigating factors to veterans finding the help that they need because there is such a stigma around mental health,” she told FOX 5 DC.

You can watch Eshkevari’s interview on FOX 5 DC; her segment begins at 34:48.

Veterans in the Georgetown community can find mental health support, academic resources and other help through the Military and Veterans’ Resource Center.