[3D model of Ketamine from Wikimedia Commons]
Ketamine continues to gain in popularity as an off-label treatment for mood disorders. During the pandemic, remote telepsychiatry companies have gained in popularity, facilitating remote prescribing of sublingual ketamine.That practice may change on May 11, when the White House plans to end the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). The PHE enabled companies such as Mindbloom and Nue Life Health to offer remote ketamine prescribing, sending the dissociative anesthetic to patients’ homes.
Such programs had meteoric growth during the pandemic, when anxiety and depression rates have exploded.
The rolling back of the PHE would likely mean that the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2008 would again go into effect, requiring new patients to have at least one in-person visit to obtain a controlled substance.
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