​

​

What Makes Us Different and Why

Ketamine asks medical and psychiatric judgment to occupy the same chair. It is a medication with meaningful physiological effects, administered to treat a serious psychiatric illness. During an infusion, the dose and its delivery, the body's reaction, the mind's response, and the full treatment plan all move together. The care should too.

 

Many ketamine models divide responsibilities. Some are built around infusion suites or wellness centers with attached psychiatric staff. Others operate within mental-health settings not built for the medical complexity of ketamine infusion.

 

We built a different model: ketamine treatment that remains medically attentive, psychiatrically directed, and personally attended. Every course is designed and directed by Dr. Dull, a board-certified psychiatrist. Every infusion is attended throughout by either Dr. Dull or Beth Villani, a dual-board-certified psychiatric and family nurse practitioner.

Someone with you, not outside looking in

Dr. Dull or Beth remains in the room throughout the infusion. There is no call button, no monitoring from another room, and no need to summon someone outside for help.

 

Monitoring heart rate, rhythm, blood pressure, and oxygenation is the beginning. Understanding and managing those variables is crucial and should be fundamental to all good ketamine treatment.

 

Training and experience change what can be seen beyond the monitor. Changes in dissociation, anxiety, cognition, tolerability, or response to a familiar dose can inform adjustments in dose, infusion speed, duration, medication, or treatment strategy.

 

It also matters in ways that are less medical but no less important. When fear, sorrow, anxiety, or disorientation arise, we have the experience to judge whether reassurance, further discussion, or allowing the experience to continue without intrusion is most helpful. Both depend on having a clinician in the room who can recognize what is happening as it unfolds and respond to it.

 

There is a depth of experience in the room: Dr. Dull's internal-medicine and psychiatric training at Johns Hopkins, and Beth Villani's intensive-care nursing and psychiatric practice alongside Dr. Dull. Each has spent more than 20 years caring for patients one to one, face to face.

 

The clinician’s presence serves another purpose as well: every IV treatment includes a separate psychiatric appointment. Your response to ketamine is considered as one part of your broader symptoms, medications, and treatment plan.

Aftercare is more than a ride home

Aftercare means more than a recovery room and a safe ride home. It means carrying what we learn during treatment into your ongoing psychiatric care.

 

If we provide that care, your observations, side effects, concerns, and our clinical interpretations become part of the treatment decisions we make together. When appropriate, medications and the broader treatment plan can be adjusted during the course of ketamine treatment.

 

If you were referred by a mental-health provider you already trust, we respect and defer to that established treatment relationship. Your provider remains the clinician directing your ongoing care. With your authorization, we document relevant observations, concerns, and recommendations in a psychiatric progress note and share that information with your provider, so you and your provider can decide how best to incorporate it into the treatment plan. Our role is to support the work you pursue together — not to replace or redirect it.

 

Either way, infusion care and psychiatric care form one course of treatment.

 

Ketamine is a serious medication and is not appropriate for everyone. The initial evaluation is intended not only to determine whether it may be useful, but whether it can be provided safely in the context of the patient's medical history, psychiatric condition, and other medications.

​

We are glad to discuss how this model differs from other approaches and whether it is the right fit for you.