Ketamine clinics in the U.S. have suddenly closed leaving many of the patients with no access to their treatment.
Both patients and the employees said they were given no warning when the Ketamine Wellness Centres (KWC) were suddenly closed. There were a total of 13 locations in 9 different states.
The website has a brief message to announce that they have closed but very little information is otherwise provided.
Many of the patients who used the clinics were military veterans who suffered from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or chronic pain.
Now that the ketamine clinics have closed, the patients are desperately searching for another facility that can help with their treatment and that will also accept their Veterans Affair insurance.
The issue was brought to a wider audience via one unhappy ex-employee on TikTok who discussed how the closure happened and her fears of what will happen to the patients. The video has garnered hundreds of thousands views.
Failure of the holding company appears to have happened rather rapidly with signs of financial struggles only occurring a week of closure.
It remains unknown exactly how many patients were receiving treatment from the clinics. The Veterans Association said it was paying for around 50 veterans. The company states that they have helped 100,000 patients since 2011.
Ketamine is traditionally used as an anaesthetic but what approved in 2019 for treatment-resistant depression, severe depression that has not been helped by other therapies.
Treating depression with ketamine is a relatively new phenomena but the studies that have experimented with it so far have proved to be very positive. Treatment is often provided via a nasal spray, but a recent study has found that an IV infusion provides longer lasting antidepressant effects. Another study has shown that repeated IV infusions have helped in reducing the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder.
