RICHMOND, Va. — Emergency anesthetic-turned-1990s party drug, ketamine is now gaining traction as a way to combat treatment-resistant mood disorders. It’s also helping give rise to ketamine clinics in the Richmond area, with the latest entrant to the market launching last month in Henrico County.
Alchemy Wellness opened at 8639 Mayland Drive in mid-June. It offers intravenous ketamine infusions for mood disorders such as depression, PTSD, OCD and extreme anxiety as well as for chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia, phantom limb syndrome and other types of neuralgias.
Another ketamine clinic, Mind Peace Clinic – RVA, at 110 N Robinson St., across from Retreat Doctors Hospital in the Fan, opened in July 2017 after the success of its first clinic in Arlington the year before. It offers treatments on a part-time schedule Tuesdays and Thursdays, with the same intravenous services for mood disorders and chronic pain syndromes.
Dr. J. Randy Frederick at Alchemy Wellness, and Dr. Patrick A. Oliver at Mind Peace, shared similar stories of frustration at being unable to treat certain patients as their reasons for opening their respective clinics.
