Ketamine use on the rise in U.S. adults; new trends emerge

Key findings include:

• Overall past-year recreational ketamine use increased by 81.8% from 2015 to 2019 and by 40% from 2021 to 2022.
• Adults with depression were 80% more likely to have used ketamine in the past year in 2015-2019, but this association weakened in later years. In 2021-2022, ketamine use increased only among those without depression.
• In 2021-2022, adults aged 26-34 were 66% more likely to have used ketamine in the past year compared to adults aged 18-25. Those with college degrees were more than twice as likely to have used ketamine compared to people with a high school education or less.
• People were more likely to use ketamine if they used other substances, such as ecstasy/MDMA, GHB, and cocaine.

The researchers recommend expanding prevention outreach to settings like colleges, where younger adults may be at heightened risk, as well as providing education on the harms of polydrug use, particularly in combination with opioids. As medical ketamine becomes more widely available, they also emphasize the need for continued surveillance of recreational ketamine use patterns and further research to understand the factors that contribute to ketamine use.

The study, published online in the Journal of Affective Disorders, was led by Kevin Yang, M.D., a third-year resident physician in the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine. The research was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.