The Unique Benefits of At-Home Ketamine Therapy

Medically reviewed by

Chelsea Tersavich, PA-C

Published on

December 8, 2022

Updated on

Summary

Mindbloom uses an at-home model to deliver ketamine therapy.
Ketamine and the at-home model both have remarkable safety profiles.
At-home therapy offers several unique benefits over other forms of treatment.

Many individuals may be new to the idea of at-home ketamine treatment. This article provides an overview of the at-home therapy model, the safety profile, and several of the unique benefits afforded by this.

What Do You Mean by At-Home Therapy?

Mindbloom offers treatment through a fully at-home model.

Every step of the process – from your clinical consult, receiving your prescription, conducting your medicine sessions, and integrating with your care team – is done via telehealth, from the comfort of your own home.

To ensure safe, powerful, and effective healing sessions, you are required to have Peer-Treatment Monitor (PTM) present in your physical location for each dosing session.

You can read more about the role of your PTM here.

At-Home Ketamine is Remarkably Safe

Ketamine has been studied in medical, clinical, and scientific contexts for over 5 decades since it was first synthesized.

Over this time, it continues to demonstrate its safety profile for a wide range of clients and clinical scenarios. The largest clinical study of at-home ketamine therapy demonstrates the safety and efficacy of this model.

There are many steps taken to ensure that you are safe and supported throughout every step of your experience:

Licensed clinicians conduct your initial consultation, determine eligibility, create a care plan customized for you, and are available for medical support throughout your program.
You are then paired with expertly-trained guides, who have extensive experience in ketamine therapy and facilitation, helping you to prepare, conduct your sessions, and understand your experiences afterwards.
Everyone, for each session, is required to have a Peer Treatment Monitor. Someone over the age of 18 who is safe and supportive to monitor your status throughout the session, and be a helping hand and direct line of contact to your Guide during treatments.
Clinicians prescribe just one initial dose, and then conduct a follow-up consultation to ensure the medicine was well-tolerated and adjust dosing as needed.
Finally, thoughtfully curated programming helps you further explore your experience, prepare your set and setting, and continue to get the most out of your experiences.

Unique Benefits of At-Home Therapy

At-home therapy offers several unique benefits, these include:

Affordable Treatment: By reducing overhead costs, the at-home model allows us to greatly reduce the cost of care and create more affordable treatment for those in need.
Convenient & Accessible Care: Ketamine therapy from the comfort and ease of your own home is a unique advantage not accessible with other methods of ketamine therapy.
Comfortable & Familiar Setting: Your mindset and your physical setting are powerful influences on your medicine experiences. Having the comfort and familiarity of your home enables you to relax more easily into the experience and focus on your healing.
Smooth Re-entry Post-Session: Instead of having to be picked up, driven back home through traffic, and other obstacles, you can smoothly enter your integration period post-session as you are already back in your home.
It’s Human: Ketamine therapy and mental health solutions should prioritize and design themselves around you. At-home models allow us to do that directly.

Want to experience this yourself?

If you’d like to experience at-home ketamine therapy for yourself, you can see if you are eligible for treatment right here.

Mindbloom Editorial Team

Mindbloom is a leader in psychedelic therapy, transforming lives to transform the world. Our editorial team shares the latest Mindbloom news, and collaborates with Mindbloom clients to help share their stories with the world.

Chelsea Tersavich, PA-C

Chelsea Tersavich, PA-C, is a psychiatric clinician who has conducted psychiatric evaluations and facilitated ketamine therapy sessions for over 250 Mindbloom clients. Chelsea obtained a master’s degree from the Interservice PA Program and has extensive mental health and primary care experience from her army career, where she treated thousands of Soldiers as a Battalion PA and a clinic Medical Director.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Always talk to your doctor about the risks and benefits of any treatment. If you are in a life-threatening situation, call the National Suicide Prevention Line at +1 (800) 273-8255, call 911, or go to the nearest emergency room.

Safety Information

Important FDA Safety Information

Ketamine is not FDA-approved for the treatment of depression or anxiety. Learn more about off-label uses here.

Side effects of ketamine treatment may include: altered sense of time, anxiety, blurred vision, diminished ability to see/hear/feel, dry mouth, elevated blood pressure or heart rate, elevated intraocular or intracranial pressure, excitability, loss of appetite, mental confusion, nausea/vomiting, nystagmus (rapid eye movements), restlessness, slurred speech, synesthesia (a mingling of the senses).

Do not proceed with ketamine treatment if any of the following apply to you:

Allergic to ketamine
Symptoms of psychosis or mania
Uncontrolled high blood pressure
CHF or other serious heart problem
Severe breathing problem
History of elevated intraocular or intracranial pressure
History of hyperthyroidism
Other serious medical illness
Pregnant, nursing, or trying to become pregnant

Ketamine has been reported to produce issues including, but not limited to, those listed below. However, lasting adverse side-effects are rare when medical protocols are carefully followed.

While ketamine has not been shown to be physically addictive, it has been shown to cause moderate psychological dependency in some recreational users.

In rare cases, frequent, heavy users have reported increased frequency of urination, urinary incontinence, pain urinating, passing blood in the urine, or reduced bladder size
Ketamine may worsen problems in people with schizophrenia, severe personality disorders, or other serious mental disorders.
Users with a personal or family history of psychosis should be cautious using any psychoactive substance, including ketamine, and discuss potential risks with your MindBloom^® clinician before proceeding with treatment.
The dissociative effects of ketamine may increase patient vulnerability and the risk of accidents.

To promote positive outcomes and ensure safety, follow these ketamine treatment guidelines:

Do not operate a vehicle (e.g., car, motorcycle, bicycle) or heavy machinery following treatment until you’ve had a full night of sleep
Refrain from taking benzodiazepines or stimulants for 24 hours prior to treatment
Continue to take antihypertensive medication as prescribed
Avoid hangovers or alcohol intake
Refrain from consuming solid foods within 3 hours prior to treatment and liquids within 1 hour prior to treatment
Ketamine treatment should never be conducted without a monitor present to ensure your safety