Among the recreational drugs currently entering the psychiatric mainstream (MDMA, LSD, etc.), ketamine is something of an outlier. Most people have a rough idea of what “acid” or “molly” are supposed to do, even if they’ve never tried them. Ketamine, meanwhile, remains—outside of a committed sect—an enigma. It’s not a very popular recreational drug. There is no standard Hollywood version of the ketamine trip. You hear talk of k-holes, and the occasional allusion to its use as a horse tranquilizer, but little on its actual effects, and less on what it’s like to take it in a clinical setting, which more and more patients with depression and mood disorders will soon be doing. To correct the record, for this week’s Giz Asks we reached out to a number of people who’ve conducted clinical ketamine trials.
