By Gus Saltonstall
A new ketamine treatment center opened this week on the Upper West Side.
Keta Medical Center has opened its doors at 123 West 86th Street, between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues. The new location is Keta Medical Center’s second on the Upper West Side, as there is also an outpost at 7 West 96th Street, between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue.
“New Yorkers deserve access to innovative, safe, and effective options that go beyond traditional medications,” said Dr. Haviva Malina, Co-Founder of Keta Medical Center, in a news release. “By opening our second Upper West Side clinic, we’re making it easier for patients to find relief and reclaim their lives with care that fits their schedules and needs.”
Keta Medical Center bills itself as a place that “empowers those left behind by traditional treatments to finally realize mental health relief, and rediscover the joy of living life fully.”
Ketamine was first approved in the 1970s by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an anesthetic during surgery.
In more recent years, ketamine has begun to be used as a treatment for depression. As outlined by the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, “ketamine was later found to have rapid-acting antidepressant and anti-anxiety effects,” through its targeting of different neurotransmitters in the brain.
“In lower doses, it is a form of hallucinogen that can make a person feel detached from reality and enter a dreamlike state,” according to DrugFree.org. Ketamine can also have side effects, such as dissociation or temporary increases in blood pressure during or shortly after a therapy session, along with nausea and dizziness.
At Keta Medical Center, including the new Upper West Side outpost, each session is supervised by registered nurses and overseen by an emergency room physician. The clinics accept most commercial insurance plans and Medicare, and are open throughout the week from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m, according to its website.
You can find out more about Keta Medical Center on its website — HERE.
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My first reaction to the headline was “oh, they’re opening a treatment center for people addicted to ketamine”…
No, they want you to get addicted.
Just because Elon does the stuff doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.
I don’t think you will be given the amounts that elon takes regularly here. There are safe ways to take ketamine for clinical reasons (not recreational, delusion-filled, K-holes)
Like pot?
False equivalence.
Yes , I do.
I’m having a difficult time digesting the fact that Medicare will cover something like this when they won’t cover any medication ever prescribed to me by a dermatologist. Is this for real?
Medicare (and whichever insurance plans this clinic accepts) will cover Spravato, which is an FDA-approved nasal spray form of ketamine for depression. No insurance company covers IV infusions for depression because they are not FDA approved for that indication.
As a nurse, that was my first thought as well..but as explained here, just because they accept it does not mean that it will be reimbursed. I feel if that we would see this as one of the hospital clinics if it were reimbursable.
Keta Medical Center may accept medicare it will not be covered by them.
If the business is making this statement that they are medicare compliant it is fraud.
Medicare absolutely does not cover ketamine infusions for mental health treatment. Only FDA approved usage is covered for any medication. This is all off label.
A friend in Florida tells me that if it weren’t for her ketamine treatments that she started a couple of years ago that she would have successfully committed suicide by now.
WOW! What happened t o her I wonder?
People in this comment section need to do their research. Theres lots of new research that small doses in HIGHLY CONTROLLED ENVIORMENTS can be super beneficial for people with depression. This type of therapy is done in very controlled enviorments, lets not act like new medicine and technology that has the potential to benefit and help people isnt a good thing…
Highly recommend Michael Pollan’s series on Netflix “How To Change Your Mind” about plant medicine. After watching this series it’s clear that we need to make these treatments more widely available.
Lot of ignorance in these comments. I know people who wouldn’t be alive today if not for this treatment.
Do they treat people with ketamine or do they treat people for ketamine?
And who decides they need ketamine? Do the patients refer themselves or are they evaluated by a psychopharmacologist?
RFK, Jr. definitely approves.
Not a good idea, most patients will become dependent on the drug.