Blog

By Greg McKettrick, RPh
Men’s Health Clinical Liaison, Revelation Pharma

Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) is an important piece in the management of aging and overall health for men from their early adulthood to their golden years. The understanding of testosterone and testicular function has been pursued for thousand of years. The ancient Greeks, Romans, and Chinese used castration to create soldiers, harem guards, and infertile sexual partners. (1) This illustrates a long-standing interest in what we know today about testosterone, the endocrine system, and reproductive systems. This led to the consumption of animal testes and testicular extracts to promote fertility and strength. (2,3)

By the 1930s, our technology and knowledge allowed for extraction and synthesis of testosterone compounds for patient use. (4,5,6) The use of testosterone injections and implanted testosterone pellets became therapeutic options for treating patients with

BY ANDREW KANTOR

Ketamine’s been in the news a lot as a potential treatment for depression, PTSD, and more. It’s not FDA-approved (yet), but its cousin esketamine is approved for treating some forms of depression.

That gets confusing, especially among lay people who don’t realize how important those extra two letters are. (Consider how you’d feel if you landed in Kansas instead of Arkansas, especially during tornado season.)

Luckily, the good folks at Medscape have a great overview of the differences between ketamine and esketamine, including how they’re delivered, what they’re approved for, and the issues popping up as clinics offer “treatment” that could be ineffective, dangerous, or somewhere in between.

While ketamine and esketamine are chemically related, they are very distinct in terms of their chemical compositions, the FDA-approved indications, dosing, and administration, as