NEW YORK, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Hundreds of clinics may be using false and misleading statements in online advertising to sell off-label and unapproved ketamine -- an injectable, short-acting anesthetic -- to treat mental health conditions and pain, a new study published Tuesday in JAMA Network Open indicates.
The researchers -- at University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colo., and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore -- found evidence of false statements on the clinics' websites, which they say misrepresent the drug's Food and Drug Administration approval status.
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"One advertiser falsely stated that ketamine was approved to treat depression, and then three falsely stated that ketamine was nonaddictive," Michael DiStefano, co-author of the study and an assistant professor in the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences on the Anschutz Medical Campus, told UPI in a telephone interview.
DiStefano added that "the use of ketamine to treat a variety of mental health and pain conditions seems to be growing, and we wanted to understand how this use is being advertised to potential patients and consumers."
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Ketamine "has some hallucinogenic effects. It distorts perceptions of sight and sound and makes the user feel disconnected and not in control," and "it makes patients feel detached from their pain and environment," according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Off-label treatments advertised by these clinics are costly...
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