Could At-Home Ketamine Therapy Improve Your Mental Health and Wellbeing?

Welcome to Talking Points, a series that looks at what makes some products worth talking about, brought to you by Gear Patrol Studios. This content is sponsored by Mindbloom. All opinions are our own.

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Mindbloom, which describes itself as the “leader in at-home ketamine therapy,” was founded to “increase access to psychedelic therapy for people looking to improve their mental health and well-being.” Its programs pair in-app meditations and music with clinician-prescribed ketamine, which has been shown to treat symptoms of anxiety, depression, PTSD, chronic pain and many other conditions. According to Mindbloom, “after only two sessions, 87 percent of Mindbloom clients reported improvements in depression, and 85% percent reported improvements in anxiety.”

First-time clients can access Mindbloom’s introductory six-session program, which consists of multiple clinician consults, one-on-one sessions with a dedicated guide and a ‘Bloombox’, which includes the medicine, a blood pressure cuff, a journal and an eye mask. The program also includes access to the Mindbloom app, where clients can find audio programming, intention setting materials and a scheduling portal for integration circles. Read on for further information, and if you’re ready to take the plunge, Gear Patrol readers can try Mindbloom for $100 off with code GEAR100.

Mindbloom

The Backstory

What exactly is ketamine?

Developed by psychiatry and psychedelic medicine experts, Mindbloom’s ketamine therapy programs are designed to provide users with clarity and relief from conditions like anxiety and depression. Their programming utilizes ketamine, a medication approved by the FDA in the ’70s as an anesthetic; today, it can be prescribed in lower doses “to treat depression, anxiety, PTSD, OCD, and other mental health-related conditions.”

After completing Mindbloom’s online assessment, prospective clients meet live with a licensed psychiatric clinician to determine whether treatment is right for them. If so, the clinician can prescribe Mindbloom’s guided ketamine therapy program to achieve mental health breakthroughs.

Regarding the legality of ketamine, the medicine “is available for ‘off-label’ prescription by a licensed clinician.” In this case, “off-label” means that a “medicine is used to treat another condition outside of its original medicinal intent.” For this reason, ketamine “is legal to administer so long as it is through a licensed provider to treat a specific condition,” like those Mindbloom focuses on.

The Gist

So, how’s it work, and… what’s it like?

Once you’ve purchased the introductory program, you’ll undergo an initial consultation with a clinician and will be assigned a guide. First, your assigned guide will speak with you over Zoom for 20-30 minutes and ensure that you feel comfortable and prepared. They will also help you take your blood pressure reading, reinforce instructions for taking the medication, and chat with your peer treatment monitor about their role in your session. Then, you’ll take the ketamine dose to begin the experience, which typically lasts about an hour. Afterward, you journal for 30 minutes and then have a post-session call with your guide to process and integrate the experience. Within the next few days, you’ll also have a follow-up call with your assigned clinician.

The experience itself varies from person to person. Mindbloom provides resources for those hoping to better understand topics like “the nature of ketamine, the psychedelic experience, visions/visuals, and intentional dissociation.” As for specific effects, they “may be pronounced, but mild. Feelings of lightness, introspection, mild dissociation, euphoria, or ‘presence’ in the body are common.”

For more information on what to expect after treatments have taken effect, we suggest reading Mindbloom’s Outcomes Page, where you will find testimonials from Mindbloom clients and data that speaks to ketamine therapy’s effectiveness. For further information on the effects of ketamine treatments and to learn more about Mindbloom, check out the brand’s Important Safety Information page.

Our POV

Treating Mental Health Concerns Is Paramount

More and more, our culture is accepting the fact that mental health is health. Just like we would treat a wound or virus, so should we be putting effort into healing our mental strain. If you are taking steps to address your own mental health, we salute you.

Mindbloom provides plenty of data to back up its product, the bulk of which is published in its largest ever study of at-home ketamine therapy. Its authors include physicians and researchers from the psychiatry departments of Cleveland Clinic, UCSF, NYU and Houston Methodist; the Senior Author is the Principal Investigator for the MAPS MDMA for PTSD phase 3 clinical trial in New York. The study’s most profound finding is that “89 percent of participants experienced improvement in symptoms of depression and anxiety, with less than 5% of participants reporting side effects. Those numbers alone are encouraging, and if you are looking for a new way to address mental health concerns, Mindbloom may very well do the trick.

Price: $1158 (for a six-treatment program)

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