Psychedelic ethics in practice: The case of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy in Norway
Journal of Psychedelic Studies June 10, 2026 Sina Susanna Schüttler, John Nathaniel Parker, Daniel Münster
As ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) moves into clinical practice, ethical challenges arise around access, consent, and therapeutic integrity. Interviews with 16 physicians and clinical psychologists in Norway, conducted before the country's August 2025 approval of ketamine reimbursement for treatment-resistant depression, revealed three key themes: access to care was inequitable due to cost, geography, and restrictions on public communication; informed consent was complicated by ketamine's unpredictable effects, requiring flexibility and experiential familiarity; and therapeutic integrity depended on maintaining psychotherapy alongside ketamine, with risks of fragmented care and unrealistic expectations. The principlist framework helped structure these issues but could not fully capture systemic factors like funding and biomedical consent norms.