Therapy or Threat? UK Expert Warns of Rising Ketamine Addiction as Phase III Alcoholism Trial Launches

Ketamine-assisted therapy is positioned as promising for severe alcohol addiction, but Professor Celia Morgan warns that rising recreational use is driving an addiction risk that complicates the picture for psychiatry. Morgan, who has led major ketamine-assisted therapy studies, frames ketamine as uniquely useful due to rapid onset and established medical roles, while also emphasizing that unsupervised use is linked with adverse psychological symptoms and irreversible health problems. In the UK, concerns are driving calls to reclassify ketamine into a more restrictive drug category, which would raise barriers for future research. The discussion connects these policy pressures to the launch of a Phase III alcoholism trial and the broader question of whether regulation will protect public health or slow therapeutic development.