Ada -

Just one point of clarification, since this is a thread on Ketamine. Where the drug went generic many years ago, by definition there is no manufacturer holding patent rights in whose interest it would be to push favorable academic studies. (And I wish I could say the same of the great weight of the professional literature in general, but you and I know better.) Ditto kickbacks, which only work if tje mnaufacter has a pool of "monopoly rents" out of which to make the payments in the first place.

And if you do a PubMed search for RS Schwartzman going back over the last 20+ years, you'll find a great many RSD articles having nothing to do with ketamine: witness the ECT article referred to above. It just so happens that he believes, as do many, that NDMA receptor antagonists provide the best shot in the long run of curing otherwise untreatable cases of CRPS and that it makes the most sense to start with ketamine where it's the most powerful of those drugs.

Finally, he's largely a one man shop right now, and except for those long term patients from SE PA who he has followed for many years, can only be doing so many research studies, which is where his out of town patients fit in, after all of them have received a comprehensive evaluation, whether or not they will qualify for the treatment protocal at issue. Mayo Clinic Rochester is much the same way, it will offer a comprehensive evaluation to anyone who can get an appointment, but will only treat those patients who live in the immediate area, for purposes of follow up, etc. (The fact that my parents live in a condo 3 blocks away didn't cut it.) At least Dr. Schwartzman doesn't draw that line when it comes to people who can participate in his current studies. And trust me from personal experience, his letter to my referring phyician carried for more weight with my disability carrier than anything they saw from any other physician, including those at the Mayo Clinic, or their own IME report for that matter.

Mike