If you live in New York City, you’ve likely passed or heard of a clinic where ketamine — a hospital anesthetic and psychedelic party drug — is used as a mental health treatment.
Locations now operate in the Financial District and Brooklyn Heights. Walk up 5th Avenue and a New Yorker will encounter five clinics off this street alone.
No official tally exists, but the nonprofit American Society of Ketamine Physicians, Psychotherapists and Practitioners lists seven members as practicing in New York City and 24 members listed in New York state overall. This number likely represents a low estimate of clinics given a quick internet search reveals way more on Yelp.
According to U.S. surveys, people are increasingly seeking mental health services and becoming open to the idea of psychedelics to address those ailments. Ketamine clinics are where these ideas and wants meet. But while each space may claim to provide ketamine therapeutically, they can differ in approach, what they require of patients, vibes and safety.
Formally known as ketamine hydrochloride, the drug is a mixture of two mirror-image molecules, R-ketamine and S-ketamine. Scientists first synthesized ketamine in the 1960s, and during this time, they found the drug causes “dissociative anesthesia.” That means — along with numbing the body as an anesthetic, it also distorts senses and causes people to feel detached from reality.
These hallucinogenic effects explain why ketamine is often considered a psychedelic, and federal regulators classify it as a Schedule III drug, meaning it has a low to moderate potential for physical and psychological dependence.
The Food and Drug Administration has not approved ketamine for the treatment of any psychiatric disorder, but the agency sanctioned the drug as an anesthetic without restrictions back in 1970. That means the drug can be prescribed off-label — or for unapproved purposes.
A growing body of evidence and personal stories show the drug can help with…
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