ArticleJournal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)2026
Self-treatment of psychiatric conditions using ketamine: Patterns, characteristics, and retrospective insights.
Article in Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWhile research on novel therapeutic applications of ketamine is expanding, particularly in controlled settings, there is limited exploration of its consumption related to self-treatment of psychiatric conditions. This study investigated the characteristics of people who use ketamine and psychedelics for self-treatment of psychiatric conditions, providing insight into patterns of use within this population.
methodsUtilising the 2020 Global Drug Survey, the analysis incorporates data from 5831 respondents who reported self-treating with unregulated drugs to treat diagnosed psychiatric conditions. We compare three groups: those self-treating with only ketamine (
resultsA high proportion (>60%) had prior psychiatric diagnoses, with depression and anxiety being the most common. People who used both ketamine and other substances reported higher festival and clubbing attendance than the other two groups. People who used ketamine and combined it with other psychedelics used it more frequently (incidence rate ratio (IRR): 0.729, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.336-1.581), while those using non-ketamine psychedelics only showed a significant reduction in ketamine usage volume (IRR: 0.160, 95% CI: 0.079-0.322) compared to other groups. Almost half of the respondents sought online advice before starting ketamine self-treatment.
conclusionThis study extends knowledge about various populations using ketamine for self-treatment purposes, proposes areas for future research and suggests online platforms as the most effective place for harm reduction resources relating to ketamine use.
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