Elon Musk reportedly takes “microdoses” of “ketamine”, a drug he has praised as being “a better option” than antidepressants when “taken occasionally”.
The SpaceX founder is said to use the dissociative anaesthetic to manage depression. Musk, 52, previously tweeted in 2017 about his struggles with mental health. Speculating that he could have bipolar disorder, he spoke of how he experienced “great highs, terrible lows and unrelenting stress”.
According to The Wall Street Journal(WSJ), people close to Musk have witnessed him using ketamine in small doses.
Following the publication of WSJ’s article on Tuesday (27 June), Musk tweeted that while depression is “overdiagnosed” in the US, it is a “brain chemistry issue” for some people.
He believed that “zombifying people” with selective serotonin uptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a widely used type of antidepressant medication, “happens way too much”.
“From what I’ve seen with friends, ketamine taken occasionally is a better option,” Musk added.
The Independent has contacted Musk for comment. His attorney and top advisor did not respond to WSJ’s request for comment, it was reported.
In 2017, Musk answered questions from Twitter users about his personal life and was asked about his mental health. He wrote: “The reality is great highs, terrible lows and unrelenting stress. Don’t think people want to hear about the last two.”
When asked if he had bipolar disorder, the South African entrepreneur simply replied: “Yeah.”
According to the NHS, bipolar disorder is characterised by extreme mood swings that can range from extreme highs (known as ‘mania’) to extreme lows (depression). It can be treated in several ways, including taking medication to treat prevent and stabilise episodes of mania and depression.
In a later tweet, Musk added that he may not be “medically” bipolar, but said he does not know. “Bad feelings correlate to bad events, so maybe [the] real problem is getting carried away in what I sign up for,” he wrote.
Microdosing involves consuming small doses of drugs, usually psychedelic or sub-hallucinogenic substances such lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) or mushrooms with psilocybins.
Ketamine is an approved drug in the US for treating severe depression that has not improved with other therapies. In the UK, it is approved as an anaesthetic drug by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), but not for use in treating depression.
However, in 2019, a drug similar to ketamine – known as esketamine, which is taken as a nasal spray – was approved in the UK for treating severe depression.
