Ketamine for a Holiday Brain Boost? Really?

We’ve been exploring how nutritional lifestyle changes can make a difference for both loved ones and their family members. Fascinating work is being done by a number of practitioners of integrative medicine, functional nutrition health coaching, and functional/integrative psychiatry. All of these pathways can alter physical, mental and spiritual health.

With all the non-pharmaceutical work taking place, I must question how quickly ketamine clinics have been spreading to promote “wellness” and “recovery” in addition to FDA-approved indications.

Ketamine has been approved for anesthesia, and a derivative called esketamine has been approved for treatment-resistant depression in nasal spray form. Despite these specific indications, clinics have been opening “pushing the envelope” with promotions that go way beyond the FDA-approved uses. The latest one I’ve seen is a promotion for a “Holiday Brain Boost”, at a 25% discount.

It has been documented that Matthew Perry was addicted to ketamine at the time of his passing, and it’s clear there are risks of letting clinics proliferate which feature ketamine as the sole pathway to recovery. This commercialization trend, in my opinion, just normalizes drug use in another form, as recent promotions include helping customers to “recover from addiction”.

At a time when avenues are opening up to address the gut microbiome, vitamin deficiencies, and food as medicine, do we as a community really need to allow ketamine clinics to multiply? Please let me know your opinion.