Europe | Trip out of hell

A new therapy for Ukraine’s scarred soldiers: ketamine

Psychedelics can help them to overcome trauma, and possibly to fight

An illustration of a dropper dispensing a liquid onto an army helmet. The liquid is washing the camouflage off the helmet.
Illustration: Alberto Miranda
|Kyiv

IHOR KHOLODILO should probably not have survived. The military psychologist and medic was evacuating comrades in early 2023 when his jeep was hit by a Russian tank shell. He was left barely able to communicate. Operations saved his heart and vision. But doctors were unable to correct his slur and stammer. He tried all kinds of radical therapies, but nothing helped. Then he met Vladislav Matrenitsky, a pioneer of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, who posed an unexpected question. Would he try ketamine?

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This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Trip out of hell”

From the January 20th 2024 edition

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