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I'm glad more discussion is being had about this in a critique lens. It's a terrible tragedy but hopefully sheds perspective on need for judicious use and it's not a miracle worker. From WSJ.
---When 32-year-old Tranyelle Harshman sought help in late 2024 for postpartum depression from Sage Psychiatry Services, a provider in Wyoming, a nurse practitioner named Krista Blough met her in person and prescribed ketamine lozenges for Harshman to take at home.
Harshman suffered heart palpitations, had difficulty focusing, and felt disconnected from reality for days after taking the drug.
Harshman was scared, but Blough told her that such side effects were common at first and increased her dose, according to Harshman’s mother, Rhonda Coplen.
On Feb. 10 of last year, Harshman scheduled playdates for her four girls, ages 2 to 8, and put them down for a nap. Then she took her increased dose of ketamine.
Soon afterward, in an eerily emotionless voice, Harshman called 911 and told the emergency responder that she had shot and killed her four daughters and was about to kill herself too, according to a 911 recording reviewed by the Journal. She told the operator that someone had been trying to take her girls, and it was easiest if everyone went at once.
All five died. Harshman had no history of violence or suicidal thoughts, Coplen said.
Harshman’s toxicology report, which was reviewed by the Journal, shows that the level of ketamine in her blood was more than four times the threshold reported in studies for mind-altering effects and physical impairment. Some medical reports suggest that patients could be prone to violent behavior under the drug’s influence or coming off it, since they are dissociated from reality.
“She was a good mom and loved her girls,” said Coplen, who filed a lawsuit against Sage Psychiatry and Blough alleging wrongful death. She said she believes ketamine has a purpose, but “it is reckless to allow it to be in a setting where you don’t have clinical supervision.
In a legal filing in November, lawyers for Sage Psychiatry and Blough said that they didn’t cause the tragedy, adding that the “injuries and damages” may have been caused by third parties or from pre-existing conditions, and that Harshman was “adequately informed of the risks, benefits and alternatives of the treatment and gave their consent based on that information.”
Ketamine is now at the heart of a largely unregulated online industry offering depression relief.
More than a million Americans used ketamine in 2024, legally or not, twice as many as in 2021, according to federal data. Prescriptions dispensed by pharmacies, including for at-home use, rose more than eightfold in the first nine months of 2025 compared with all of 2024, according to the Iqvia Institute for Human Data Science.
Evidence is mounting of ketamine’s potential dangers. ---
---When 32-year-old Tranyelle Harshman sought help in late 2024 for postpartum depression from Sage Psychiatry Services, a provider in Wyoming, a nurse practitioner named Krista Blough met her in person and prescribed ketamine lozenges for Harshman to take at home.
Harshman suffered heart palpitations, had difficulty focusing, and felt disconnected from reality for days after taking the drug.
Harshman was scared, but Blough told her that such side effects were common at first and increased her dose, according to Harshman’s mother, Rhonda Coplen.
On Feb. 10 of last year, Harshman scheduled playdates for her four girls, ages 2 to 8, and put them down for a nap. Then she took her increased dose of ketamine.
Soon afterward, in an eerily emotionless voice, Harshman called 911 and told the emergency responder that she had shot and killed her four daughters and was about to kill herself too, according to a 911 recording reviewed by the Journal. She told the operator that someone had been trying to take her girls, and it was easiest if everyone went at once.
All five died. Harshman had no history of violence or suicidal thoughts, Coplen said.
Harshman’s toxicology report, which was reviewed by the Journal, shows that the level of ketamine in her blood was more than four times the threshold reported in studies for mind-altering effects and physical impairment. Some medical reports suggest that patients could be prone to violent behavior under the drug’s influence or coming off it, since they are dissociated from reality.
“She was a good mom and loved her girls,” said Coplen, who filed a lawsuit against Sage Psychiatry and Blough alleging wrongful death. She said she believes ketamine has a purpose, but “it is reckless to allow it to be in a setting where you don’t have clinical supervision.
In a legal filing in November, lawyers for Sage Psychiatry and Blough said that they didn’t cause the tragedy, adding that the “injuries and damages” may have been caused by third parties or from pre-existing conditions, and that Harshman was “adequately informed of the risks, benefits and alternatives of the treatment and gave their consent based on that information.”
Ketamine is now at the heart of a largely unregulated online industry offering depression relief.
More than a million Americans used ketamine in 2024, legally or not, twice as many as in 2021, according to federal data. Prescriptions dispensed by pharmacies, including for at-home use, rose more than eightfold in the first nine months of 2025 compared with all of 2024, according to the Iqvia Institute for Human Data Science.
Evidence is mounting of ketamine’s potential dangers. ---
