Australia has closed its most controversial ketamine clinics

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Australia has closed its most controversial ketamine clinics

3 August 2015

Clinics have shut down and patients have been cut loose in what could be a massive backward step in the campaign to make ketamine a registered treatment for mental illness in Australia.

The clinics in question were a chain run by Aura Medical Corporation, where patients suffering from depression, bipolar disorder, and PTSD were receiving injections of the controversial drug.

In Australia, the restrictions around treating mental illness with ketamine are not cut and dry. The drug's indicated use is anesthesia, but doctors are able to obtain it under its Schedule 8 prescription status for use in "off-label" treatment, which is not governed by the Therapeutic Goods Administration. It's therefore legal to use it outside its intended purpose.

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