Putting the pieces together requires
someone with a new way of thinking.

Dr. Grass founded the Ketamine Institute to pioneer the development of RESTORE Ketamine Infusion Therapy. The protocol is used in the treatment of depression, anxiety, PTSD and chronic pain.

We know that we need to view complex illness as the result of "system reorganization" within the mind and the body. What we currently know about medicine is only the beginning, the mechanistic view.  We understand that is vitally important to incorporate a broader view by including discoveries in memory, learning theory, and neurocognition if we want to make true progress.

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Our Medical Director

Gerald W. Grass, MD is a physician with more than forty years of clinical and academic experience. Prior to founding the Ketamine Institute he was Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine and Director of the Yale Pain Medicine Fellowship Program, where the original ketamine infusion for depression was described.

Dr. Grass developed the RESTORE Infusion, a ketamine infusion dosed to a measured target concentration in the blood, and established an international training program that teaches the method to licensed clinicians treating treatment-resistant mood disorders and chronic neuropathic pain.

He is a widely published author and lecturer who has numerous academic publications including peer-reviewed articles, academic presentations, abstracts and book chapters. He has taught at academic and research institutions including Yale University School of Medicine, Mount Sinai Medical Center/Icahn School of Medicine in New York City and the State University of New York at Stony Brook School of Medicine.

Before founding the Ketamine Research Institute, Dr. Grass was Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine and Director of the Yale Pain Medicine Fellowship Program. He has held academic appointments in anesthesiology and pain medicine at Mount Sinai/NYU Medical Center and at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and in neurological surgery and general surgery at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Yale is where the first controlled studies of ketamine for depression were carried out. Dr. Grass taught and practiced there. His view of the standard protocol, that the dose used in those early studies was never meant to be a finished treatment plan, is the assessment of a physician trained at the institution where the work began.

Thirty-seven years of clinical experience with ketamine

Dr. Grass first used ketamine clinically in 1989, during his neurosurgical residency rotation, and went on using it throughout his training in emergency medicine and anesthesiology.

In 2005, holding a joint appointment at the Yale Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine and at the VA Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, where he served as Chief of Pain Management, he began treating veterans. They were soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with complex chronic pain, depression, and post-traumatic stress. That work is where RESTORE began. In 2006 he started treating private patients.

He has given thousands of ketamine based infusions and has been personally present for the whole of every one, monitoring and adjusting each infusion himself. The RESTORE protocols came out of that experience. They were not adapted from a published paper. They were built from ketamine concentrations measured in plasma during infusions he conducted himself.

Clinical background

Dr. Grass is broadly trained across anesthesiology, neurosurgery, pain medicine, and emergency medicine, with clinical experience in hospital practice, private practice, academic medicine, research, and clinical trials. That range shows in how the RESTORE program is built. Aiming at a target blood concentration is a technique from anesthesiology. The concentration targets used for nerve pain come from pain medicine. The airway assessment and sedation monitoring that make it appropriate to give an anesthetic outside an operating room come from both.

 

As a former Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine, Dr. Grass had the opportunity and privilege of working with members of the Department of Psychiatry in the clinical use and application of ketamine to treat mood and addiction disorders. This included collaborating with members of the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University who published the first randomized, placebo controlled trial on the use of ketamine in patients with treatment resistant major depression (Berman RM, Krystal JH, et. al. Antidepressant effects of ketamine in depressed patients, Biol Psychiatry 2000; 47(4): 351-354).

Dr. Grass has spent many years working to enhance and expand the benefits of ketamine infusion therapy. He has developed the Restore Ketamine Infusion to help relieve the suffering of patients with chronic pain and depression. He has presented his work at regional and national meetings and conferences, and to other physicians and government agencies. Broadly trained, he has extensive clinical experience and training in many fields of medicine including Anesthesiology, Neurosurgery, Emergency Medicine and Alternative/Complementary Medicine. All of which have served to give him the overview and training necessary to integrate the complexities of modern medicine and transform those fields into the emerging new direction in science known as Translational Medicine. 

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Founder and Course Director

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Academic Presentation - Lectures

2016 – Grass G: Sequential Ketamine Infusions Utilizing an Enhanced Multimodal Infusion Technique (eMIT) for Rescue from Intractable Pain and Withdrawal Symptoms Associated with Intrathecal Pump Misadventue. American Academy of Pain Medicine Annual Meeting, Palm Springs, CA, February 2016

2016 – Grass G: RESTORE Outpatient Opioid Detoxification Using a Novel Enhanced Multimodal Ketamine Infusion. International Conference on Opioids, Boston, MA June 2016

2016 – Grass G: Sequential Ketamine Infusions Utilizing an Enhanced Multimodal Infusion Technique (eMIT) for Rescue from Intractable Pain and Withdrawal Symptoms Associated with Intrathecal Pump Misadventue. American Society of Regional Anesthesia Annual Meeting, Palm Springs, CA, March 2016

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2015 – Grass G: Ketamine: A Molecular “Reset Button” for Chronic Pain and Depression. Region 2 VA SCAN-ECHO Telemedicine Presentation. VISN 5 - VISN 8 Primary Care Providers, September 2015.

 

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2015 – Grass G: Ketamine Intravenous Therapy for the Treatment of Chronic Pain. Department of Defense - Walter Reed Medical Center Pain Management Grand Rounds. November 2015.

 

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Translational Medicine Research - Postpartum Depression

Sage Therapeutics
215 First Street
Cambridge, MA 02142

SAGE 217-PPD-201 – Principal Investigator: 
A Multicenter, Randomized, Double-Blind, Parallel-Group Study Evaluating the Efficacy, Safety, and Pharmacokinetics of SAGE-217 Injection in the Treatment of Adult Female Subjects With Severe Postpartum Depression. Number 217-PPD-201

SAGE 547-PPD-304 – Principal Investigator: 
A Multicenter, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study Evaluating the Efficacy, Safety, and Tolerability of Brexanolone in the Treatment of Adolescent Female Subjects With Postpartum Depression. Number 547-PPD-304

SAGE 547-PPD-301 – Principal Investigator: 
A Multicenter, Open-Label Study Evaluating the Efficacy, Safety, and Tolerability of SAGE-547 Injection in the Treatment of Adult Female Subjects With Moderate to Severe Postpartum Depression. Number 547-PPD-301

SAGE 547/201 – Principal Investigator:
A Multicenter, Randomized, Double-Blind, Parallel-Group, Placebo-Controlled Study Evaluating the Efficacy, Safety, and Pharmacokinetics of SAGE-547 Infusion in the Treatment of Adult Female Subjects With Severe Postpartum Depression and Adult Female Subjects With Moderate Postpartum Depression. Number 547-PPD-202

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Other Publications

2005 – Rozen D, Grass GW: Interventional Pain Medicine Approaches to Nonradicular Low Back Pain of Internal Disc Degeneration Origin. Pain Physician. 2005; 8:357-363.

2005 – Rozen D, Grass GW: Intradiscal Electrothermal Coagulation and Percutaneous Neuromodulation Therapy in the Treatment of Discogenic Low Back Pain. Pain Practice. 2005, Volume 5/Issue 3: 228-243.

2005 – Rozen D, Grass GW: Perioperative and Intraoperative Pain and Anesthetic Care of the Chronic Pain and Cancer Pain Patient Receiving Chronic Opioid Therapy. Pain Practice. 2005, Volume 5/Issue 1:18-32

2003 – Grass GW: Reversal of Chemotherapy-Induced Myelosuppression with Electroacupuncture. Journal of Medical Acupuncture. 2003, Volume 15/ Number 3

2003 – Kramer D, Grass GW: Challenges facing the Anesthesiologist in the Emergency Department. Current Opinion in Anesthesiology. 2003, Volume 16:409-416

2002 – Grass GW: Percutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (PENS) in the Treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Case Report. Journal of Medical Acupuncture. 2002, Volume 13/ Number 2

Abstract/Poster Presentations

2012 – Grass G: Veterans Healthcare Administration - VA SCAN-ECHO Initiative at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Pain Society, Whistler, BC, May 23, 2012

2012 – Grass G: Veterans Healthcare Administration - VA SCAN-ECHO Initiative at the Annual International eHealth, Telemedicine and Health ICT Forum, Luxembourg, Switzerland, April 18, 2012

2012 – Grass G: Veterans Healthcare Administration - VA SCAN-ECHO Initiative at 28th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Pain Medicine, Palm Springs, Calif., Feburary 24, 2012

2011 – Licoln L, Grass G: High Risk Mediciations: Methadone Intervention and Safety Program at VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Presented at the VHA National Pain Management Leadership Conference, March 2011

2010 – Souzdalnitski, D, Grass GW: Nicotine Transdermal Patch For 48 Hours After Hysterectomy May Save Up To 77.6 Million Dollars Yearly: A Primer Of Concealed Economic Benefits Of Postoperative Opioid Sparing. Presented at the 26th American Academy of Pain Medicine San Antonio, Texas on February 3-6, 2010.

2009 – Implementation of a Multidiscplinary Pain Medicine Center – VHA National Conference, Evolving Paradigms, Las Vegas, Nevada September 21-25.

2006 – Grass GW: A Novel Therapy in the Treatment of Recalcitrant Trigeminal Neuralgia: A Case Report – 22nd Annual meeting of the American Academy of Pain Medicine February 23-25, 2006, San Diego, CA.

2006 – Grass GW: Percutaneous Neuromodulation Therapy: A Novel Treatment for Intractable Abdominal Pain: A Case Report –   25th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Pain Society (IASP Chapter) May 3-6, 2006, San Antonio, Texas.

2005 – Thompson JC, Grass GW, Kelly J, Paticoff J: A Challenging Case of Postherpetic Neuralgia: Its Multiple Treatment Options – 79th IARS Clinical and Scientific Congress. March 2005. Honolulu, Hawaii.

2004 – Grass GW: A Minimally Invasive Technique for the Treatment of Acute and Chronic Pain – The 58th Postgraduate Assembly – The New York State Society of Anesthesiologists. December 2004 New York, New York.

2004 – Grass GW: Percutaneous Neural Modulation Therapy: A Minimally Invasive Technique for the Treatment of Acute and Chronic Pain – The 2nd Joint Scientific Meeting of the American Pain Society and the Canadian Pain Society. May 2004 Vancouver, B. C.

Research

2009-2013 Donaghue Foundation Program for Research Leadership Grant.” Implementation of a “Stepped-Care” Model of Pain Treatment”. R.D. Kerns (Principal Investigator). Total amount of award, $800,000.

2008-2010 VA Rehabilitation Research and Development Program Merit Grant (B6044R), “Cognitive behavior therapy for diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain”. R.D. Kerns (Principal Investigator). Total amount of award, $750,000.

2010- 2012 VA Connecticut Pilot Study: The Use of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in the Treatment of Chronic Pain States. G.W. Grass (Principal Investigator).

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Presentations/Lectures/Teaching Activities

2016 – Grass G: RESTORE Outpatient Opioid Detoxification Using a Novel Enhanced Multimodal Ketamine Infusion. International Conference on Opioids, Boston, MA June 2016

2016 – Grass G: Sequential Ketamine Infusions Utilizing an Enhanced Multimodal Infusion Technique (eMIT) for Rescue from Intractable Pain and Withdrawal Symptoms Associated with Intrathecal Pump Misadventue. American Society of Regional Anesthesia Annual Meeting, Palm Springs, CA, March 2016

2016 – Grass G: Sequential Ketamine Infusions Utilizing an Enhanced Multimodal Infusion Technique (eMIT) for Rescue from Intractable Pain and Withdrawal Symptoms Associated with Intrathecal Pump Misadventue. American Academy of Pain Medicine Annual Meeting, Palm Springs, CA, Feburary 2016

2015 – Grass G: Ketamine Intravenous Therapy for the Treatment of Chronic Pain. Department of Defense - Walter Reed Medical Center Pain Management Grand Rounds. November 2015.

2015 – Grass G: Ketamine - A Molecular "Re-Set Button" for Chronic Pain and Depression. Region 2 VA SCAN-ECHO Telemedicine Presentation. VISN 5 through VISN 8 Primary Care Providers, September 18

2012 – Bellmore W, Grass G: Complex regional Pain Syndrome – Part 2. Region 1 VA SCAN-ECHO Telemedicine Presentation. VISN 1 through VISN 4 Primary Care Providers, August 2 nd.

2012 – Grass G: Medicolegal Aspects of Pain Medicine – Part 2. Region 1 VA SCAN-ECHO Telemedicine Presentation. VISN 1 through VISN 4 Primary Care Providers, June 21st.

2012 – Grass G: Region 1 VA SCAN-ECHO – A Transformational Approach To Specialty Care Consultation - Presented to the VISN 1 and VISN 2 Leadership Group for VA Redesign, June 11th.

2012 – Grass G: Medicolegal Aspects of Pain Medicine – Part 1. Region 1 VA SCAN-ECHO Telemedicine Presentation. VISN 1 through VISN 4 Primary Care Providers, June 7th.

2012 – Grass G:L Pain Medicine for Primary Care – Presented to the Center of Excellence Group for Primary Care Education at VISN 1, May 6th.

2012 – Grass G: Interventional Options in Pain Medicine. Region 1 VA SCAN-ECHO Telemedicine Presentation. VISN 1 through VISN 4 Primary Care Providers, March 1st.

2012 – Grass G: Radiological Anatomy “What is that Radiologist Talking About”. Region 1 VA SCAN-ECHO Telemedicine Presentation. VISN 1 through VISN 4 Primary Care Providers, February 16th.

2012 – Grass G: Low back Examination Techniques. Region 1 VA SCAN-ECHO Telemedicine Presentation. VISN 1 through VISN 4 Primary Care Providers, February 2nd.

2012 – Grass G: Introduction to Chronic Spinal Pain. Region 1 VA SCAN-ECHO Telemedicine Presentation. VISN 1 through VISN 4 Primary Care Providers, January 19th.

2012 – Grass G: Pain is Pain…or is it? Region 1 VA SCAN-ECHO Telemedicine Presentation. VISN 1 through VISN 4 Primary Care Providers, January 5th.

2011 – Grass G: MRI Findings and Pain Plan of Care Development. Region 1 VA SCAN-ECHO Telemedicine Presentation. VISN 1 through VISN 4 Primary Care Providers, November 3 rd.

2011 – Region 1 VA SCAN-ECHO – A Transformational Approach To Speciality Care Consultation - Presented to the VISN 1 and VISN 2 Leadership Group for VA Redesign, June 11th.

2011 – Pain Medicine for Primary Care – Presented to the Center of Excellence Group for Primary Care Education at VISN 1, May 6th.

2011 – Pain Medicine Survival Guide – Presented to the Primary Care Service of VA Connecticut at an educational forum sponsored by the PRIME Center and the Donaghue Research Foundation, March 31th.

2009 - VHA VISN 1 Pain Summit presentation: The Treatment of Neuropathic Pain, Bedford, MA, November 30, 2009

2009 – Yale-VA Connecticut Department of Psychiatry Grand Rounds presentation; Chronic Opioid Therapy for Non-malignant Pain; Confusion, Controversy and Consensus, May 14th, 2009

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What patients are saying about the Restore Ketamine Infusion