I've heard that Ketamine treatments cost something like between $400 to $1000 per treatment, and insurance often doesn't cover it (as it's off-label use), so it has to come out of pocket for patients.

This seems completely insane, especially as the cost of ketamine itself is supposed to be negligible, and what you're paying for is the therapy.. but the therapists role in the treatment is itself virtually nonexistant.. they just hang out and let the medicine do the work (or, in the case of lozenges that patients take a home all they do is write a prescription).

When you factor in that most people who treat their depression with ketamine have to come back again and again every week or two (possibly for the rest of their life), this is a HUGE money maker for ketamine clinics and I don't see how it wouldn't send any but the richest among us in to the poor house.

I've heard some psychiatrists and psychedlic therapy advocates express concern about this and say they want to find some way of making sure that everyone who needs help gets it, regardless of their financial situation, but I don't know if anything ever came of that. AFAIK ketamine treatment is still not covered by insurance.

All the ketamine clinics springing up like mushrooms after the rain seem like a big money grab, and I can't believe they couldn't make the treatments orders of magnitude cheaper.