One commercial forecast estimated the US ketamine-clinic market at $3.41 billion in 2023 and projected it to reach $6.9 billion by 2030. The UK market, meanwhile, has attracted less press and regulatory scrutiny. Britain’s only sanctioned NHS provider is a single specialist, self-pay service based in Oxford for £225 an infusion. Patient materials are cautious. About half of patients respond and most relapse, the NHS clinic says, and extensive maintenance treatment is usually needed. “We would be surprised if, like-for-like, our results are better or worse than elsewhere”, it reads. Around 15% of long-term patients develop tolerance, and it lists conditions under which it will decline to treat someone.1 NICE has never endorsed racemic ketamine for depression, and rejected the licensed derivative, esketamine (Spravato), on cost grounds.
In the gap left by the NHS, there is a private commercial sector of some fifteen-odd clinics whose public-facing claims are not always as circumspect. The most notable has been Awakn’s Bristol clinic, led by the now-disgraced psychiatrist Dr. Ben Sessa. It charged £6,000 for a clinically delivered course, before closing in 2024 for want of enough paying patients.2
As in the US, the market splits loosely into two models: infusion-only clinics – Save Minds and The Burlington Clinic among the most visible – charge for infusions without therapy, under medical supervision. Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy clinics – Aion, The Ketamine Clinic (recently rebranded The Emerge Clinic), Eulas, and the Owain Winfield/Ozase/Inspire referral chain – include structured psychotherapy around dosing instead, so patients can explore and integrate their experiences. A smaller category includes a company like Ketana, “the UK’s first legal at-home ketamine therapy provider”, while disclosing no company name, registration, named prescriber, or pricing this article could find.3
Claims of Efficacy and Safety Challenged
Early, small trials suggested that ketamine, given as sub-anaesthetic infusions, might offer swift relief for treatment-resistant depression and suicidality. Pooled trial data and a larger 2026 meta-analysis of 26 RCTs both found a short-term effect.4 It was described as a “paradigm shift” and even a possible “cure for chronic depression.”
Still, a 2026 sentiment analysis found that negative or neutral coverage of psychedelic treatments rose from roughly 4% to 21% between 2020 and 2024, and the past two years have seen a comparable flurry of sceptical ketamine pieces. In the last month, an expose in Rolling Stone alleged that the comedian Reggie Watts had enabled the death of his former partner from ketamine addiction.
Ketamine’s effectiveness is far from certain. Its effects are often short-lived, and trials may have limited follow-up – though suicide prevention may be valuable in short bursts. It is hard to blind a trial against a drug like ketamine, whose effects are so dramatic and strange. It is also unclear how ketamine works: does it relieve depression through neural repair, or a psychedelic trip, or a mixture of both? A 2023 study delivered ketamine or placebo under general anaesthesia and found no difference in depression scores. A larger 2025 trial, KARMA-Dep 2, likewise found no benefit over active placebo. Esketamine itself failed five of its six FDA trials while still being approved.
Some commentators have called ketamine a “psychedelic heroin,” worrying that US prescribing could seed a future opioid-style crisis. Unlike LSD or psilocybin, ketamine carries a lot of physical risk: bladder damage (uropathy) can be irreversible and was cited by a coroner in the death of teenager Gemma Weeks. Roughly 8% of regular users may develop dependence, and a tenth have serious liver toxicity. Private clinics do not appear to be the principal driver of Britain’s wider ketamine harms: dispensing roughly halved between 2019 and 2024 as illicit-market deaths rose sharply, and a Scottish study of 88 ketamine-related deaths found no evidence of clinical or iatrogenic origin.5
The Players, and the Gap Between Claims and Evidence
A review of company websites suggests that the tentative evidence base around ketamine is not always front-and-centre, though practice varies between clinics. Prof Harry Sumnall of the Public Health Institute has said clinics are, in his view, “selling the ‘ketamine experience’ under the guise of a treatment.” A parallel US study of 17 Maryland ketamine advertisers found 41% failed to disclose any risk of addiction or adverse effects, three falsely claimed the drug was non-addictive, and 59% did not disclose its off-label status.
Klearwell’s homepage called its treatment “a new clinically proven approach” with “long-lasting effects” that enables “breakthroughs” difficult to achieve with therapy alone – while its own FAQ candidly conceded, elsewhere, that “it doesn’t help everyone… a minority find they feel worse.”6
To around a dozen clinics, this article sent a standard set of questions covering emergency response, eligibility, under-18s, disclosure of persistent perceptual disturbance, adverse-event recording, dependence monitoring, GP liaison, and consent documentation.7 An initial deadline of 22 August 2026 was extended, on request or as a courtesy, to 11 September 2026.
Save Minds, which brands itself on “evidence, not adjectives,” invites patients on a “9 Weeks to Recovery” journey and appears to cite its number of patients and treatments against variant denominators (“7,500+,” “over 5,000”). It reports an unpublished “70% respond in one day” figure from an audit of 140 patients said to be “awaiting peer review”.8 Its Case Studies page discloses, candidly, that “20–25% of patients don't respond within the first 10 sessions — though this drops to under 5% by session 20”. This implies an eventual response rate above 95%, in tension with a separately stated “50–54% depression response rate”. Note that a “response” is not the same as recovery: it is up to, and including, fifty per cent reduction in a depression score.
“Of all the medications ever tested, only ketamine reliably reverses this damage”, the clinic claimed, as well as suggesting that therapeutic ketamine “does not produce a high worth chasing”. The clinician Dr. Nassir Ghaemi, strongly critical of ketamine treatments, has reported treating several patients who became dependent on the drug in clinical settings before sourcing it from the streets.
Save Minds’ founder, Dr Yadhunanthanan – an anaesthetist and intensive-care consultant at the Royal Free, not a psychiatrist – issued no responses by the deadline on its advertised success rates, its 2021 regulatory action for misleading advertising, its description of IV ketamine as an “FDA-designated breakthrough treatment” (actually granted to a different drug, esketamine), its claim that “no cases of addiction… in medically supervised therapeutic use” have ever occurred, or how a non-psychiatrist personally treats depression, PTSD, OCD, and suicidal ideation across an expansive caseload.
Save Minds was rated as ‘Good’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The clinic excludes anyone with serious contraindications, including active psychosis, untreated bipolar I, substance dependency, pregnancy, uncontrolled hypertension, and eating disorders. It directs anyone in crisis to 999 or the Samaritans.
Its own risk page is somewhat more measured than its marketing elsewhere, stating ketamine “is not YET approved as a treatment for depression in spite of its amazing effects.” “Be honest with yourself about the cost,” the website counsels, stating plainly that its full programme typically runs £10,000-£15,000 and is not covered by the NHS, private insurance or payment plans, because “the kindest thing we can do is help you decide whether this is realistic for you.”
Its homepage advertises that “no referral [is] needed” from a GP and patients can self-refer: a boon for speed of access and the right to try.9 It becomes a problem when medical records are never inspected, relying on patient testimony. Save Minds was found, though, to communicate well with GPs and other professionals. Significantly, the clinic also reports receiving referrals from inpatient clinics in the NHS.
Aion has treated around 20 patients and is CQC-registered, though not yet rated. It presents an eight-week, 11-session programme with a consultant psychiatrist onsite during dosing and requires prior failure of licensed treatments. But the clinic has claimed a “very low risk of serious side effects” and “tangible, lasting results within 8 weeks” from a “clinically tested and validated” protocol without supplying supporting studies, extending to a broad menu of anxiety, PTSD, eating-disorder and substance-use indications with uneven evidence. Aion was incorporated in October 2024, the month Klearwell entered liquidation, sharing senior personnel with that earlier, commercially unviable venture.10
The Ketamine Clinic has rebranded as The Emerge Clinic. Its new homepage now states plainly that ketamine is “legally prescribed in the UK for off-label therapeutic use” and that the “evidence continues to develop”. Clinic representatives told the author that its claim to being the “UK’s only” alcohol-programme will not carry over, and it resolved an apparent partnership with Inspire Pharmacy to post ketamine to patients, tracing the pharmacy’s actual partner to Owain Winfield & Associates instead. Having initially declined to name its CQC-registered provider, it did so shortly before publication, alongside plans for independent psychiatric assessment.11 The Clinic clarified that its marketing material would not transfer to a rebrand. Several specific claims were not addressed, however.
The Ketamine Clinic’s site stated that KAP has “demonstrated great effectiveness” and offers “proven reduction in relapse risk.” “Your right to joy is just a step away,” the Clinic told patients. Mind Success, a site associated with one of the clinic’s directors, goes further still, calling ketamine “proven” and stating its risks “are comparable to those of common over-the-counter medications like paracetamol” when medically supervised. The Ketamine Clinic’s earlier site separately marketed ketamine-assisted psychotherapy for anorexia, which may involve higher physical risks while attracting exciting exploratory research in trials. The Ketamine Clinic’s anorexia marketing has been removed, and Emerge Clinic no longer records treatment for the condition.
The Clinic’s lead prescriber is a foot and ankle surgeon with no dedicated training beyond a half-day course on ketamine, which is delivered remotely via an American provider. The Clinic clarified that psychiatric training is not required for its prescriber, since psychotherapy is delivered separately – though it conceded a claim that Dr Deveny’s “insights into shape and symmetry, honed through surgical experience” enriched his prescribing practice was “general biographical copy, not a claimed clinical qualification.”
Notes
- Oxford Health’s own published FAQ (oxfordhealth.nhs.uk) discloses that patients over 65 respond less well or more slowly; that adolescents may be more susceptible to “brain lesions of uncertain significance (Olney lesions)”; that the effects of ketamine on an unborn foetus are “unknown”; and that, in its own comparative framing, medically supervised ketamine is “probably about as addictive as whiskey” - offered as reassurance relative to opioids and benzodiazepines. It publishes real outcome data rather than marketing statistics: in one dataset, 49% of patients who start treatment judge it worthwhile enough to continue, and 6% are discharged well; average QIDS depression scores fell from 17.5 at baseline to a plateau around 9–11 over 18 months. It has also stopped accepting new patients funded through Individual Funding Requests as of February 2024, citing its own capacity constraints as a small team, and explicitly does not accept patients currently using psychedelics from other clinics or with an active alcohol use disorder.
- Per BBC News (12 July 2024), Awakn’s Bristol clinic was CQC-registered from November 2020 and, on its only inspection in 2023, was rated “Good,” with three dedicated treatment rooms and monitoring of blood pressure and heart rate before, during and after dosing. It received one recorded complaint, which resulted in a full refund and the installation of additional double glazing to address traffic noise. Scientific adviser Prof David Nutt attributed the closure to insufficient private-patient volume rather than any safety or regulatory concern, and described the London clinic, later rebranded as Klearwell, as its effective successor. A Klearwell spokesperson separately told the BBC that 88% of patients saw improvement in their mental health.
- This article sent Ketana and its webmaster a right-of-reply letter in early August 2026 seeking the identity of its operating company, its CQC/GPhC registration status (if any), its named prescriber, and its pricing. No reply had been received by publication, and no independent trace of Ketana as a registered UK healthcare provider - in Companies House, the CQC register, the GPhC register, or independent press coverage - could be found. This absence is reported as a finding in itself, not as an allegation of wrongdoing; Ketana may operate under a different registered or trading name not identified by this article.
- Wilkinson et al.’s 2018 individual-participant-data meta-analysis (American Journal of Psychiatry) pooled multiple randomised trials and found a significant, replicated reduction in suicidal ideation within a day of a single ketamine dose. A 2026 meta-analysis of 26 RCTs (n=1,166), published in JAMA Psychiatry, reached a similar conclusion for both depressive and suicidal symptoms. McIntyre et al.’s 2021 international expert consensus (American Journal of Psychiatry) explicitly treats durability, comparative effectiveness and appropriate implementation as open questions rather than settled ones, which is the more precise position than either uncritical acceptance or blanket scepticism.
- Corkery, Guirguis and Schifano’s 2026 study of Scottish ketamine-related deaths (2013–2024) examined all 88 recorded cases: mean age at death was 35, 81.8% of decedents were male, and the great majority of deaths were polydrug-related - only six of the 88 (6.8%) involved ketamine alone. The authors state explicitly that no case examined showed signs of being “iatrogenic in origin” or of having “resulted from clinical or medical interventions.” The study also records that illicit ketamine’s UK street price fell from roughly £20–£40 to £10–£30 a gram between 2023 and 2025, even as NHS and private prescription dispensing of the drug approximately halved over 2019–2024. The “more than tenfold” figure for England, Wales and Northern Ireland is separately sourced to Pullen et al. (2025), which found annual deaths with illicit ketamine detected rose from 15 (2014) to a projected 197 (2024). The same study found a steeper, 20-fold rise in deaths where ketamine was specifically implicated as a cause of death (6 in 2014 to a projected 123 in 2023) - but also that the proportion of ketamine-detected deaths where it was actually implicated in causing death fell from 60.0% to 42.6% over the same period, as polydrug use increased (median co-administered substances rising from 3 to 6). Together, this evidence indicates that falling street prices and rising street-level availability, not the legitimate clinical sector, are the principal driver of the mortality trend.
- Klearwell’s FAQ states ketamine is “proven to improve brain plasticity” and offers “proven... long-lasting effects” in one section while conceding, in another, that “it’s early days. It doesn’t help everyone... a minority find they feel worse... it is never a ‘magic bullet.’” The Ketamine Clinic’s FAQ states its protocol’s “effects on neuroplasticity also contribute to lasting changes in brain function.” A 2025 critique, “The collective lie in ketamine therapy,” argues that meaningful improvement is thought to derive from plasticity-driven reorganisation in the days after dosing, “not from insights gleaned during dissociation”.
- This article’s standard question set, put to every clinic named in this article, covered: emergency-response protocol during and after dosing (staffing, resuscitation capability, proximity to emergency care); eligibility and exclusion criteria and how treatment-resistance is verified; whether patients under 18 are treated; whether patients are told about the risks of persistent perceptual disturbance and cognitive effects; how adverse events are recorded and reported; whether bladder, cognitive and dependence risk are monitored across a maintenance course; whether GP records are obtained before prescribing; and a request for a copy of the patient consent or information document used. An initial deadline of 22 August 2026 was extended, on request or as a courtesy, to 11 September 2026 for several recipients.
- Save Minds’ own published pages, reviewed side by side, give inconsistent figures for several headline statistics: “7,500+ treatments delivered” on one page against “over 5,000 treatments” on another; “900+ patients” against a quoted “I’ve helped 500 of them”; a “75%+ good response rate across all conditions” (sourced to the same unpublished 140-patient audit) against a separately stated “50–54% depression response rate... published aggregate clinical trial data” elsewhere on the same site.
- Dr Yadhunanthanan’s clinic first indicated a substantive response was being prepared subject to Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust press-office sign-off, then raised six procedural questions concerning this publication’s editorial code, regulatory affiliation, complaints procedure, and the conditions under which any reply would be quoted - all of which were answered in writing by this article on 18 August 2026. On 21 August, Save Minds stated it had instructed lawyers “to obtain legal advice before reaching a final decision as to whether, and on what basis, to provide a substantive response,” and indicated the Trust’s position would also be taken into account. No further substantive reply had been received by publication, twelve business days after the original 22 August deadline and beyond a further extension to 11 September.
- Told its side-effects information omitted persistent perceptual disturbance, Aion said it had not previously discussed the risk with patients but would start doing so “from now-on.” Aion’s reply was among the most detailed and evidence-referenced received by this article, citing published trials behind its claims - including Krupitsky & Grinenko (1997), Dakwar et al. (2020) and Grabski et al. (2022) on ketamine-assisted therapy for alcohol and substance use, and Wilkinson et al. (2021) and Pradhan et al. (2017) on psychotherapy prolonging ketamine’s effect in depression and PTSD. It conceded its evidence base for eating-disorder indications is “more speculative,” resting on case reports rather than trials, applies a BMI-16 exclusion, and says it liaises with patients’ specialist eating-disorder services. It confirmed its consent forms state plainly that ketamine is being prescribed off-label, discussed further by the consultant psychiatrist. On governance, it said the March 2026 simultaneous resignation of two officers, including the CQC Nominated Individual, reflected a restructuring rather than a departure: both were retained on contract in their clinical roles, and the Nominated Individual and Registered Manager remain distinct people. On abuse potential, it said dosing is capped at four weekly sessions specifically to limit dependence risk, with a validated screening tool (the Ketamine Side Effect Tool) administered three times across treatment. Separately, on the public record: Aion Clinic Ltd was incorporated on 22 October 2024, the same month Klearwell Ltd (the former Awakn London clinic) entered liquidation, and Aion’s Chief Medical Officer and a senior psychologist both held equivalent roles at Awakn/Klearwell, with its CEO describing himself as previously responsible for business operations at Klearwell. This is presented as a lawful continuity of clinicians and premises across successive brands, not as an allegation of wrongdoing.
- In correspondence received on 9 September 2026, close to publication, the clinic named its CQC-registered medical provider (giving a specific CQC provider reference) after previously declining to do so, and set out its position at length: that professional-body position statements (such as those of the Royal College of Psychiatrists) and individual expert opinion are not statutory requirements, and that its lead prescriber’s competence with ketamine derives from his wider medical practice rather than the single named KAP-specific course on his public profile. It also disclosed that it is introducing an additional layer of independent psychiatric assessment ahead of launching a patient-finance option, a change it described as part of the service’s ordinary development rather than a response to this article’s questions – timing this article was unable to verify independently beyond the clinic’s own account of when internal discussions began. The Ketamine Clinic’s earlier site separately marketed ketamine-assisted psychotherapy for anorexia by name. Emerge Clinic now makes no mention of anorexia.