“Is Ketamine legal?” is a common, and legitimate question from those looking to explore psychedelic medicine for therapeutic treatment of their depression and anxiety.

Ketamine is legal for use by registered practitioners, and historically has a high safety profile in surgical and therapeutic use since its synthesis in the 1960’s. Its scope of treatment and potential use-cases continue to grow and develop as ketamine is studied further. 

More and more we are seeing promising areas that ketamine is uniquely suited to help with, in everything from surgical procedures to relieving treatment-resistant depression and anxiety symptoms.

Is Ketamine Legal?

Ketamine is legal for medical use in the United States and select countries across the world. 

The use of ketamine is regulated, meaning it can only be administered or prescribed by licensed clinicians with the authority and expertise to support its effective use.

When used within the context of a surgical procedure or as prescribed by a licensed clinician, it is perfectly legal to use. Any other use of this medicine outside of these guidelines is currently illegal and unregulated.

Ketamine’s FDA and DEA Scheduling

Ketamine is an FDA-approved anesthetic, and is available for “off-label” prescription by a licensed clinician.

Ketamine has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for medical use as an anesthetic since 1970. In addition to off-label ketamine prescriptions, the FDA recently approved derivatives such as esketamine for treatment of adults with treatment-resistant depression.

“Off-label” prescription is when a medicine is used to treat another condition outside of its original medicinal intent. More on this below.

Ketamine is currently listed as a Schedule III compound under DEA guidelines. 

This means it is generally accepted to have medical value for specific purposes, and must be administered by a licensed provider to be distributed effectively.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) schedules controlled substances or compounds 1 through 5. Any compound receiving a 2, 3, 4, or 5 rating is designated as having viable medical uses, and is legal to administer so long as it is through a licensed provider to treat a specific condition.

When is Ketamine Illegal?

Ketamine is illegal when used outside of a clinically-prescribed setting.

Ketamine is known to be used as a “club drug.” It’s often referred to as special k, vitamin k, ket, kit kat, cat valium, and other street names. 

Side effects can include elevated blood pressure, increased heart rate, nausea, dizziness, and other symptoms. When used unsupervised recreationally, and in high doses, users can experience extreme dissociative effects, often called a “k-hole.”

This is why it’s important for users seeking medical and therapeutic benefits of ketamine to do so under medical supervision. When using the calculated dosage, in a clinically-supervised setting, ketamine therapy is safe and well-tolerated, allowing individuals to receive the intended benefit of the treatment.

Is “Off-Label” Ketamine Legal as Well?

Ketamine is able to be prescribed “off-label”, which can, understandably, be a confusing term. A common misconception about “off-label” prescribing is that it’s potentially illegal or otherwise untrustworthy. 

Generally, when a drug or compound is approved for medical use, it is approved to treat a very specific ailment or serve a very particular purpose. Originally, ketamine was approved for use as a general anesthetic in surgeries that do not require skeletal muscle relaxation. This is the labelled use.

If the compound or medicine is prescribed and used to treat something other than the original designation, this is considered off-label use. This is a relatively common practice, with studies showing that one in five prescriptions are given off-label. Fully labeling a medicine for FDA-approved use is a time and cost-prohibitive process, and is typically sought out by pharmaceutical companies looking to apply the medicine for a specific consumer use case.

Fortunately, new science and research is emerging showing that ketamine can be highly effective in treating treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, PTSD, OCD, chronic pain, and a growing list of other applications.

If prescribed for any of these use-cases, this is considered off-label use, and it is completely legal — so long as it is prescribed by a licensed practitioner for this particular use.

What are the Legal Uses of Ketamine?

Ketamine for General Anesthesia

Ketamine was originally synthesized for use as a general anesthetic in medical and surgical procedures. 

To this day it continues to be used in emergency rooms and in surgeries across the country to help manage pain and induce sedation. Due to its safety and efficacy, it has become an essential asset to the medical community, being used to treat a range of cases from young children, military members and veterans, and seniors. 

Ketamine for Depression & Anxiety

As research continued and scientific interest explored the uses of ketamine further, new applications and areas of efficacy were discovered.

Evidence from peer-reviewed, double-blind research over decades has shown that lower doses of ketamine prescribed in a clinical and therapeutic setting can provide benefits for depression and anxiety symptoms, among other mental health considerations.

Ketamine’s antidepressant and antianxiety benefits are related to enhanced neuroplasticity, or the ability of brain cells to form new connections with one another. The effects of ketamine therapy can be long-lasting, and often require shorter courses of treatment than medications like antidepressants.

Legal Ketamine-Assisted Therapy

One of the potential, and most illuminating, applications of ketamine is its use as a catalyst and treatment in managing or relieving depression and anxiety symptoms in patients actively suffering from these symptoms or who have been found to resist other possible treatments.

Therapeutic ketamine sessions, when prescribed and monitored by a licensed clinician, have the potential to facilitate incredible breakthroughs in the mental health of clients and patients who go through these treatments.

Ketamine is legal, safe, well-tolerated, and effective. This is due to decades of history in clinical and surgical environments, structures and systems in place for quality control, prescription and clinician regulations.

If you’re interested in learning how ketamine can help with anxiety and depression symptoms, take our assessment to see if you’re a candidate today.

About twenty years ago, researchers first showed that ketamine could alleviate depression within just hours following administration. Ever since, the psychiatric community has been excited about ketamine as the potential antidote to depression, anxiety and other treatment-resistant psychological disorders.

But how will it help you? In this post, we explain the benefits of Mindbloom’s treatment and how to fully take advantage of your journey toward better mental health and personal transformation.

First, let’s review how ketamine interacts with the brain to achieve its therapeutic outcomes.

Your brain on ketamine

Ketamine is believed to produce its therapeutic effects through several novel mechanisms of action – increasing production of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and reducing activity in the default mode network (DMN).

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a signalling protein that supports differentiation, maturation, and growth of neurons in the nervous system. By increasing BDNF production, ketamine enhances neuroplasticity, which refers to the brain’s ability to continuously adapt its structure in response to its activity – something that we know is impaired in states of chronic stress, anxiety and depression. Because BDNF is active in the parts of the brain that are essential to learning, memory, emotional regulation and higher thinking, this allows our brains to open and form new – ideally more positive – circuit patterns.

The default mode network (DMN) refers to the activity of specific groups of brain structures that are involved in memory, emotion, and our sense of self. Because of this, it is crucially involved in sustaining regular, everyday states of consciousness. Unfortunately, this everyday consciousness can often involve negative, ruminating thought patterns. The brain can get stuck in these patterns, especially under states of impaired neuroplasticity caused by chronic stress, anxiety, and depression, as mentioned above.

By decreasing activity in the DMN and enhancing neuroplasticity, ketamine can help your brain break out of these faulty circuit patterns and allow you to discover new perspectives, replacing negative thought patterns with positive ones in the process.

An exciting approach to therapy

In early 2019, the FDA approved a derivative of ketamine (esketamine) for treatment-resistant depression. However, mental health professionals are more frequently turning to ketamine, not just as a last resort for treatment resistant conditions, but as a first-line intervention because of its many advantages over conventional treatment options. Below, we’ve highlighted some of the most exciting attributes of ketamine.

‍

It’s rapidly effective

Conventional antidepressants can take weeks or even months to become effective. Ketamine’s benefits often begin to appear within hours, and clinical trials with intravenous ketamine infusions have shown peak mood elevation about 24-36 hours after treatment.

It can help people with a variety of mental health conditions

Likely due to ketamine’s ability to increase neuroplasticity and reduce activity in the DMN, its therapeutic applications apply to a broad range of disorders that involve ruminating about the past (depression) or future (anxiety), fixating on self-destructive behavior (OCD and substance abuse), and other conditions in which the brain seems to get stuck in the same, repetitive negative groove.

‍

You don’t have to take it every day

Unlike other psychiatric medications that are typically taken daily, ketamine treatments are far less frequent, which results in far fewer side effects. Our clients often begin with weekly administration during their initial six-session program and then transition to less frequent sessions in subsequent programs. Clinical trials with IV ketamine have shown that an initial course of 4-6 twice weekly treatments can produce antidepressant effects that last weeks or even months.

‍

It has an impressive safety record

Ketamine was FDA approved as an anesthetic in 1970 and remains widely used in the fields of surgical anesthesia and emergency medicine because of its effectiveness and safety record. In recent decades, ketamine has proven its ability (at a fraction of the anesthetic dose) to act as a therapeutic agent for numerous mental health conditions, including depression and anxiety.

‍

It can help access new, positive perspectives

The purpose of the guided ketamine experience is to create a psychedelic, or “mind-revealing,” state of consciousness in order to facilitate lasting, meaningful personal growth and transformation. Benefits may include mental rejuvenation, self-discovery, enhanced empathy and social intelligence, stress reduction, developing a more positive outlook and appreciation for life, improved relationships with yourself and others, and optimization of your lifestyle.

The Mindbloom approach: Equipping you with tools for lasting growth

The Mindbloom approach is designed to help clients take advantage of the ketamine-induced brain state to target their identified areas of self-improvement. We believe clients need to be active participants in their personal growth and we have created programs that help clients achieve maximum therapeutic benefits.

We’re not simply providing medication, we’re equipping clients with the support and tools to get the most out of their treatment using approaches backed by decades of evidence in psychedelic medicine and psychiatry. Every client works with their clinician to set intentions and develop a personalized treatment plan. Whether your session is at Mindbloom or at home, we help ensure that your mindset and the treatment setting are carefully prepared to promote positive and beneficial experiences. After each session, we provide guidance on integrating your breakthroughs into your day-to-day life to create lasting change.

Our initial six-session program allows your sessions to build on each other as you go deeper with your intentions or discover new target areas of self-improvement. If you want to continue to build on your progress or tackle new goals, we provide integration therapy as well as more advanced programs.

What Mindbloom clients are saying

We’ve looked at how ketamine operates in our brains, its positive clinical attributes, and how Mindbloom’s approach helps clients get the most out of their treatment. But how do these benefits manifest in an actual ketamine patient?

Here are some of the benefits reported by Mindbloom’s clients:

“I was really struggling with ruminating anxiety despite psychotherapy. My clinician Kristin made me feel comfortable, the space was amazing, and the experience blew my mind. I’m finally out of the rut I was in for several years. I LOVE that feeling.” Laura K. – Healthcare provider in Brooklyn, NY

“Mindbloom gave me everything I was looking for. The next day, I almost felt like a kid again where everything felt new. And the lasting effects have been so real. It was life-changing. I’ve been telling everybody about it.” Adam B. – Designer in New York, NY

“Mindbloom was like getting 5 years of therapy in just a few sessions. It’s the single best investment I have ever made for my mental health.” Natalie W. – Executive at non-profit startup in New York, NY

“I 100% recommend Mindbloom to anyone who has been stuck with anxiety, depression, or stress and wants to try something new. I’ve come to see old problems in new ways and feel like I have a better perspective on the world.” Mattan G. – Professor in New York City

Want to see if you’re a candidate? Head over to Mindbloom and complete our brief candidate assessment.