Skylight is owned by medical doctors! We are a physician owned and operated organization, and our mission is to get affordable ketamine assisted therapy to clients who are likely to benefit. Our founding physicians have extensive training in psychedelics, and we have each come to the medicine for our own healing.

At Skylight, we understand that our clients have established long standing relationships with their therapists, and this is who they should continue to work with while doing ketamine assisted therapy. Unlike other practices, we do not support the use of ketamine in the home, alone totally unsupervised.

The team at Skylight is also here for you, if you have an issue, question or concern reach out and a live human will get back to you. There are no robots here! We are also the only group that has psychedelic integration yoga! We also support and prescribe for group ketamine therapy sessions.

Luckily Skylight prescribes in most states across the US. If you are interested in Skylight prescribing in your state please send us an email @ human@skylightpsychedelics.com

States we are NOT prescribing in currently:

Alaska

Alabama

Arkansas

Idaho

Kansas

Louisiana

Mississippi

North Dakota

South Carolina

South Dakota

Wyoming

1- Fill out intake form online.

2- Get scheduled for your online medical intake evaluation.

3- Wait for a call from the pharmacy to confirm your shipping address.

4- Ketamine will be shipped to your home once you confirm your shipping address.

5- Once you receive the medicine schedule your sessions with your therapist.

Ketamine treatments are far less frequent than standard medications for mental health. This in turn results in far fewer side effects. Our clients often begin with 1-3 times weekly administration during their initial 6-12 session program, and then transition to less frequent sessions as needed, if needed. Clinical trials with IV ketamine have shown that an initial course of 4-6 twice weekly treatments can produce antidepressant effects that last several weeks-months.  Ketamine also allows you to connect with the deeper root cause of your struggles, your traumas. Ketamine elevates all types of therapy models and allows people to be more open and able to receive the benefits of various therapeutic approaches.

Ketamine hydrochloride, trade name Ketalar, is a Schedule III controlled medicine that is legal in all 50 states and is FDA approved for general anesthesia in intravenous or intramuscular formulations. Ketamine is a racemic mixture, made up of two molecules that are mirror images of one another, R-ketamine and S-ketamine. Ketamine does not have FDA approval for any psychiatric illness.

S-ketamine, derived from ketamine, called esketamine, trade name Spravato, was approved in 2019 in nasal spray form, for treatment resistant depression in adults with major depressive disorder with acute suicidal ideation or behavior, in conjunction with an oral antidepressant. Most ketamine being used for mental illness is being used legally by healthcare professionals off-label. Sublingual ketamine used by Skylight Psychedelics is off-label.

Ketamine has been used since the 1970s as an anesthetic. More recently, it has proven its ability (at a much lower dose) to act as a therapeutic agent for numerous mental health conditions. It has an extensive safety profile and has very few undesirable side effects which are rarely encountered. The doses used in mental health are so low that many of these side effects are ameliorated.

Clients are asked to not operate heavy machinery including cars following sessions. All clients are asked to have a safe ride home after each session, ideally with someone they know. We ask all clients refrain from swimming, hot tubbing, bathing on treatment days. Further we ask all clients to avoid being the sole provider of childcare for small children on the days of treatment.

All clients doing virtual sessions are asked to do the following:

1- have a safe and sober sitter in the home (not in the treatment room)

2- therapist and sitter must exchange contact information

3- client must avoid having pets in the room

4- clients must refrain from lighting candles and burning other items in the treatment room to avoid fire

There are many studies supporting the use of ketamine for mental health issues. Please refer to any of the studies below for further information.  

1. Huang YJ et al. New Treatment Strategies of Depression: Based on Mechanisms Related to Neuroplasticity. Neural Plast. 2017; 2017:4605971.

2. Hamilton et al. Depressive Rumination, the Default-Mode Network, and the Dark Matter of Clinical Neuroscience. Biological Psychiatry. 2015 Aug 15;78(4):224-30.

3. Andrade, C. Ketamine for Depression, 1: Clinical Summary of Issues Related to Efficacy, Adverse Effects, and Mechanism of Action. J Clinical Psychiatry 2017 Apr;78(4):e415-e419.

4. Gaynes BN et al. What Did STAR*D Teach Us? Results From a Large-Scale, Practical, Clinical Trial for Patients With Depression. Published online 1 Nov 2009. https://doi.org/10.1176/ps.2009.60.11.1439.

5. Zarate CA, et al. A randomized trial of an N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonist in treatment-resistant major depression.Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2006 Aug;63(8):856-64.

6. Aan Het Rot M et al. Ketamine for depression: where do we go from here? Biol. Psychiatry. 2012 Oct 1;72(7):537-47.

7. DiazGranados N et al. Rapid resolution of suicidal ideation after a single infusion of an N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonist in patients with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder. J. Clin. Psychiatry. 2010 Dec;71(12):1605-11.

8. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/directors/thomas-insel/blog/2014/ketamine.shtml

9. Jennifer Dore et al. Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP): Patient Demographics, Clinical Data and Outcomes in Three Large Practices Administering Ketamine with Psychotherapy, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 51:2, 189-198, DOI: 10.1080/02791072.2019.1587556.

Medical Conditions Contraindications

Untreated hyperthyroidism, Untreated hypertension, Epilepsy Aneurysm or dissection Heart disease, including heart failure, heart attacks or arrythmias, Severe breathing problems, Kidney disease, Advanced liver disease, Active Interstitial cystitis (bladder wall inflammation), Glaucoma (unless cleared by an ophthalmologist), Active illicit substance abuse, Pregnant or breastfeeding

Psychiatric Contraindications

Schizophrenia, Psychotic features, Active Mania

As an added safety measure we recommend our clients reach out to their primary care physician to ensure they do not have any contraindications to treatment. Additionally, if a client has a psychiatrist we recommend they contact their psychiatrist to ensure they have no contraindications to treatment.

Any client of Skylight Psychedelics who identifies as having suicidal ideation will be offered ketamine therapy as long as they do not have any plan or intent to act on the ideation. Anyone with plan or intent will be escalated to a higher level of care and possibly referred to a setting in which either intravenous (IV) or intramuscular (IM) ketamine in conjunction with supportive therapy will be available. There is data to support the use of ketamine in these ways for suicidal clients.

Theophylline or Aminophylline – can lower seizure threshold.

Benzodiazepines, opioid analgesics, or other CNS depressants (can cause profound sedation, respiratory depression, coma or death, they can also interfere with the mental health benefits of ketamine).

CNS Stimulants such as Adderall (can increase blood pressure and heart rate)

Lamotrigine (trade name Lamictal) not clients on Lamictal will discuss the possibility of tapering down with the medical team and their Lamictal prescriber

Sleeping aids and sedatives such as Ambien, Benadryl, Remeron and Seroquel

There are other medicines that may interact with ketamine and therefore your clients medications have been thoroughly reviewed by Skylight Psychedelics medical team prior to their prescription being authorized.

We also recommend clients refrain from using the following substances during treatment as they can interfere with the benefits of ketamine and some can lead to dangerous interactions:

Alcohol
Marijuana
All Illegal substances such as cocaine, etc.

Patients will have an agreement with Skylight Psychedelics that they will not use the above substances to the best of their ability during ketamine treatment weeks. We do not recommend mixing ketamine with other substances including using ketamine with psilocybin, MDMA, Kambo, DMT, ayahuasca, mescaline, iboga, etc.

Combining medicines has an increased risk of adverse events, notably hypertension, and is not recommended unless the combination is being studied in a clinical trial. Further, if a client is on a benzodiazepine we may ask them to taper off under the care of their prescriber prior to a prescription for ketamine being authorized. Rapidly tapering off any medications is NOT recommended unless authorized by your health care provider and can result in severe withdrawal and potentially death.

A small percentage of clients will not respond to ketamine, even at higher doses. Additionally, some clients with rigid personality structures, including those with severe OCD or personality disorders and possibly those with profound PTSD, won’t be able to go into a trance-like state and may find it challenging to maintain the benefits of the treatment experience, if they find any relief with the experience at all. We don’t yet know enough about who won’t benefit and recommend attempting this treatment if no contraindications exist as the medicine is incredibly safe and well-tolerated.

Skylight Psychedelics uses a specialized sublingual formulation of ketamine that is rapidly dissolving with an onset in less than 20-30 mins. Our protocol was formulated by a multidisciplinary team of physicians board certified in internal medicine, anesthesia, and psychiatry in conjunction with doctors of pharmacy. Our protocol was developed with client safety and the medicine’s efficacy as top priorities. We provide our clients with client specific dosing based on many factors including, prior ketamine experience, prior psychedelic experience, weight and body mass index (BMI), level of anxiety re non-ordinary states of consciousness and more.

We chose to work with sublingual ketamine as, not only is it safe but it reliably promotes communication between client and therapist. As client move through the sessions the dosing increases each time. Clients experience ketamine at trance-like doses and psychedelic doses. This regimen also allows people to tap into difficult states of mind with decreased fear. Further, it affords clients the ability to integrate healing after the acute phase of medicine starts to wear off. We find that most often the peak experience on the medicine lasts approximately 25-60 mins and the medicine becomes much less intense after this initial wave.

Most clients do not experience side effects from ketamine, however they are possible. Side effects from ketamine include:

• Headache

• Blurry vision

• Nausea

• Vomiting

• Anxiety

• Diminished ability to see/hear/feel

• Dry mouth

• Lip tingling and/or heaviness

• Elevated blood pressure

• Elevated heart rate

• Elevated intraocular or intracranial pressure

• Excitability

• Loss of appetite

• Confusion

• Nystagmus (rapid eye movements)

• Restlessness

• Slurred speech

• Synesthesia (overlapping of the senses, for example seeing sounds)

• Dissociation (feeling out of body)

• Dizziness

• Tinnitus (ringing in the ears)

• Hypoesthesia (partial or total lack of sensation in a body part)

• Lethargy (fatigue)

• Sedation (somnolence)

• Vertigo (room spinning)

• Feeling drunk

• Rarely a client can experience a feeling of paralysis

Note: There have been no cases of persistent neuropsychiatric sequelae, medical effects, nor increased substance abuse in clinical practice.

Note: Skylight Psychedelics firmly believes that the dissociative and/or psychedelic effects of ketamine treatment are a critical piece of the therapeutic process and should not be avoided. We believe this part of the experience can be extremely beneficial to our clients when supported in a trusted healing container.

The medical team prescribes the ketamine the same day as your intake appointment. The script goes to the pharmacy and they will contact you within 2 business days to confirm your shipping address. They will not ship you any medication without confirming your shipping address. Haven't heard from the pharmacy? Send us an email at human@skylightpsychedelics.com

The only way Skylight clients can take the ketamine at home is if you have a virtual appointment with your therapist or your therapist is at your home. We do not believe in unsupervised ketamine use.

Send us an email! We will get back to you right away. Email us at human@skylightpsychedelics.com

Many people in a trance-like state from sublingual ketamine often describe positive feelings. This has been described as euphoria, empathy, forgiveness, calmness, total relaxation and reduced mind chatter. Some clients more often report dissociative effects and can experience the feeling of falling, flying, feeling out of their body, they can relive a past events, they can feel paralyzed, they often cry, laugh, smile, breathe very deeply and quickly, moan, and rarely, some can kick and scream. Each session is completely different from the one prior and also differs significantly from client to client. There is no way to predict what a session will be like for someone.

Experiences with ketamine can often lead to any one of the following and more:

• Feelings of gratefulness, calmness, acceptance

• Feeling of flying

• Feeling of falling

• Seeing God

• Feeling out of body – looking down on oneself

• Feeling of being reborn

• Re-experiencing past events, including traumas

• Ego dissolution/Ego loss – a complete loss of one’s sense of self or self-identity (less likely to occur with sublingual ketamine)

• Falling asleep

• Feeling of paralysis is a rare occurrence, but possible

Long term ketamine use can lead to various medical issues. Ketamine-induced cystitis, a bladder pain syndrome due to chronic ketamine use is associated with ulceration of the bladder lining and chronic inflammation. This condition is typically found in people who abuse street ketamine. Studies have demonstrated that certain concentrations of ketamine were toxic to the cells of the bladder wall, causing damage to the urinary barrier. Further there is data to suggest that some factor in urine (rather than something affecting the whole body) is responsible for the ulceration–most likely ketamine itself or its metabolites. Symptoms include pelvic pain, frequent urination, urgency, hematuria (blood in urine), nocturia (frequent urination during the night) and urinary incontinence. This condition is often reversible once the medicine is stopped. For clients who develop this condition complete ketamine cessation is recommended. Some people using long term ketamine can develop what's called K pains, this is severe abdominal pain similar to appendicitis. Cessation of ketamine can often reverse these symptoms.

Ketamine tolerance can also develop. Concerns arise over addiction but when used at low doses and with infrequent dosing models, as used in mental health, this is less likely to occur. Neurotoxicity has been identified in ketamine abusers and rodents impacting brain structure and function and reports of liver toxicity have also been found in the literature.

Most issues with ketamine are encountered when people abuse or misuse it.

The duration of benefits is variable and depends a lot on why the client sought out ketamine to begin with. Many clients will return for further courses of treatment, especially those with long standing depression, failing multiple medications.

Ketamine is routinely given in sterile clinical settings for various mental health indications. Oftentimes there is no therapy provided with this service and clients are left trying to make sense of the experience and to navigate challenging experiences on their own. The lack of therapy short changes people seeking ketamine treatment as they are less likely to be able to integrate the experience into their everyday life.

In 2015, Stephen Hyde published a paper Ketamine for Depression, demonstrating ketamine’s ability to be used successfully via routes other than intravenous and intramuscular, promoting easier use outside of a clinical setting. Incorporating psychotherapy into ketamine treatment sessions was first described by Wolfson and Hartelius in 2016. By the mid-2000s many clinicians were using ketamine in conjunction with therapy. It has become increasingly more apparent that prescribers aren’t required at the bedside, but someone should be there to guide and hold space for clients on ketamine and that’s you.

When used for mental health, ketamine is typically given 6-12 times over a 2-12 week period. Some patients may require additional doses, typically 4 weeks or more from their last session, but this should not be a blanket recommendation for all patients as many may not need additional doses.

After a client has completed the sessions a patient may reach out to Skylight Psychedelics for further ketamine doses if they had further trauma or other setbacks. Again we do not have patients on a standing autopilot schedule without checking in with them first to ensure they need further treatment. This is a very client specific medicine and the need for booster doses should be determined on a case by case basis by the prescribing provider with input from the patient and their therapist.

When taking ketamine prescribed by Skylight you will need to take your blood pressure before and after the session. It is not your therapist’s job to take or interpret your blood pressure. This will be explained in detail in your paperwork once you meet criteria for treatment. You will need to purchase your own blood pressure cuff, found at most pharmacies. We do not recommend the use of wrist blood pressure cuffs as the reading is less accurate.

Yes, we recommend using an eye mask for the duration of time you are on the medicine. This promotes an internal journey. We recommend using the Mindfold mask, which can be found on Amazon. If you don't feel comfortable wearing an eye mask please close your eyes as much as possible.

Integration is when you take the experience from your medicine journey and weave it into your daily life. Integration is a critical part of psychedelic medicine. While the medicine sessions are very important, a time where people get many messages, without the integration many of these messages can get lost or be fleeting. Integration is done with your therapist and a key part of this work.

The founders of Skylight Psychedelics are yogis and understand the power of yoga and its inherent psychedelic nature. We have developed the first of its kind psychedelic integration yoga series with spiritual yoga guru Jackie Smith and are excited to share this with our clients.

More of Jackie Smith’s Yoga Classes can be found here:

https://www.livekick.com/en/c/jaquelynsmith

If you feel you require additional ketamine doses you can email us @ human@skylightpsychedelics.com and let us know. We will connect with you, set you up for a re-evaluation appointment and determine if this is appropriate.

We recommend clients reach out to their individual insurance provider to determine if they can get reimbursed for the cost of the ketamine service provided by Skylight Psychedelics. We do not take insurance at this time but provide a superbill to clients upon request.

We do work with Enthea, a third party administrator who works with employers covering ketamine for mental health. Ask your employer about Enthea today.

Clients pay Skylight for the medical evaluation. Therapists are paid separately and that is between the client and the therapist. Clients have to pay the pharmacy directly for the ketamine. Ketamine is a relatively inexpensive medication. Tablets ranged from $15-$30 per tablet.

Should I spit or swallow the medicine?

We ask clients to allow the medicine to dissolve under the tongue and once dissolved SWALLOW the medicine. This allows for a longer, deeper experience.