Private Ketamine Clinics | Ontarians can get high at home, but at their own risk

A chain of ketamine clinics – which treat thousands of Canadians who are suicidal or trapped in depression – are also shipping it to customers, it has been learned The Press. This anesthetic, also used as an antidepressant, can however cause dissociation and, sometimes, terrifying hallucinations or immense anxiety.

“Any physician may prescribe oral ketamine for home use, subject to reasonable medical standards for administration. We offer at-home treatment in Ontario,” revealed to The Press Braxia’s legal director, Peter Rizakos.

Its former Quebec partner, a clinic located in Mont-Royal, flatly refused to take this route, declares the director of the latter, Marcel Mazaltarim.

The risks of harm associated with taking ketamine at home have also been denounced by the Yale University School of Medicine, the New York TimesTHE Washington Postthe magazine Psychology TodayNational Public Radio, etc.

Supervision is required because 5% of people feel “really bad during treatment,” Gerard Sanacora, who directs the depression research program at Yale University, said in 2022. “It’s not that small when you consider a large number of people [traitées] “, underlined the neuroscientist.

According to a 2022 study, 6% of patients in American clinics saw their suicidal thoughts worsen and 8% saw their depression worsen following ketamine sessions.

“Braxia asked us to introduce ketamine remotely by saying: “We are going to prescribe it to people who cannot travel and ship it to them. And a nurse will monitor clients by video,” reports Mr. Mazaltarim, whose staff treated 82 clients with this substance in 2023.

“It created a dispute. What they want is impossible! We have to take vital signs every 20 minutes. I said: “In Quebec, this will never happen! Good for you if you do it in Ontario…”

The ex-psychotherapist deplores the philosophy of Braxia which, according to him, relies too much on the molecule, to the detriment of psychotherapy allowing its effects to be prolonged. He has therefore just broken off their partnership, which lasted three years.

In July 2023, Braxia – which also wants to create drugs and which is listed on the stock exchange – announced that it wanted to intensify direct marketing and look for good partners to quickly develop virtual treatments. “We didn’t find any,” says M.^e Rizakos.

Initially, Braxia began by partnering with KetaMD, of Miami, a year and a half ago. Instead of opening a clinic, the latter launched an application to do everything remotely, including monitoring treatments.

In the United States, ketamine prescribers began to proliferate starting in 2020, when authorities allowed doctors to sign prescriptions after a virtual consultation and prices fell.

“20% off your treatment”

After announcing its partnership with Braxia, KetaMD published numerous advertisements on Facebook. She posted temporary discounts of 10% or 20%, especially at Thanksgiving. And suggested using ketamine to combat stress or anxiety related to holiday travel, loneliness, seasonal depression, life worries, exhaustion, etc.

KetaMD, which did not respond to our email, offers meditation retreats using ketamine, reported, in August 2023, the British magazine The Face, supporting photos. Its co-founder, Kaia Roma, published a personal growth book and worked in marketing for 25 years.

All these practices contrast with what Braxia advocates in Canada. A prolific researcher, its founder – psychiatrist and pharmacologist Roger McIntyre – helped develop Canadian guidelines and those of other jurisdictions. He states that ketamine should be reserved for people suffering from treatment-resistant depression. And we must inform them that we do not know its long-term effects and risks.

For the moment, the issue is “theoretical”, he believes, because “because of the capital necessary to develop the activity on a large scale […]KetaMD is not operational at the moment and we have not yet determined if and when we will relaunch the activity.

Braxia “recorded a record number of consultation requests” in 2023, while suffering a net loss of 13.1 million, its financial results indicate.

Read the file “Mental health treatments: the shattered hopes of ketamine in the private sector”