Intravenous ketamine for severe alcohol use disorder at Moi Teaching & Referral Hospital, Kenya: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Alcohol use disorder is prevalent globally and in Kenya, and is associated with significant health and socio-economic consequences. Despite this, available pharmacological treatment options are limited. Recent evidence indicates that intravenous (IV) ketamine can be beneficial for the treatment of alcohol use disorder, but is yet to be approved for this indication. Further, little has been done to describe the use of IV ketamine for alcohol use disorder in Africa. The goal of this paper, is to: 1) describe the steps we took to obtain approval and prepare for off-label use of IV ketamine for patients with alcohol use disorder at the second largest hospital in Kenya, and 2) describe the presentation and outcomes of the first patient who received IV ketamine for severe alcohol use disorder at the hospital. CASE PRESENTATION: In preparing for the off-label use of ketamine for alcohol use disorder, we brought together a multi-disciplinary team of clinicians including psychiatrists, pharmacists, ethicists, anesthetists, and members of the drug and therapeutics committee, to spearhead the process. The team developed a protocol for administering IV ketamine for alcohol use disorder that took into account ethical and safety issues. The national drug regulatory authority, the Pharmacy and Poison's Board, reviewed and approved the protocol. Our first patient was a 39-year-old African male with severe alcohol use disorder and comorbid tobacco use disorder and bipolar disorder. The patient had attended in-patient treatment for alcohol use disorder six times and each time had relapsed between one to four months after discharge. On two occasions, the patient had relapsed while on optimal doses of oral and implant naltrexone. The patient received IV ketamine infusion at a dose of 0.71 mg/kg. The patient relapsed within one week of receiving IV ketamine while on naltrexone, mood stabilizers, and nicotine replacement therapy. DISCUSSION & CONCLUSIONS: This case report describes for the first time the use of IV ketamine for alcohol use disorder in Africa. Findings will be useful in informing future research and in guiding other clinicians interested in administering IV ketamine for patients with alcohol use disorder.

Determining Role of Social Factors in Adoption of Electronic Health Records by Nurses.

This paper explored social factors influencing Electronic Health Records (EHR) adoption by Nurses at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH), Eldoret, Kenya. Correlation analysis showed that there existed an affirmative, strong and statistically substantial link between the social factors and EHR adoption, r (279) = 0.591, p < 0.05. Linear regression analysis disclosed that there existed a statistical and significant linear association between social factors and EHR adoption, F (1, 277) = 148.721, p < 0.01 and that social factors can statistically and significantly affect / predict EHR adoption, ß2 = 0.615, t (279) = 12.195, p < 0.01. The study concludes that training nurses to rely upon EHRs and their decision support instruments can solely work to speed up all-round EHR uptake. It is recommended that nursing schools should incorporate informatics into their program of studies to ensure that future nursing students are equipped with skills that can help drive healthcare's application of technologies such as EHRs.