At Ketavita Wellness Clinic, located in Wyckoff, NJ and serving all of Bergen County, we offer IV and IM ketamine therapy as an experimental adjunctive treatment for behavioral addictions including gambling disorder, internet gaming disorder, and other compulsive behaviors.
When conventional behavioral addiction treatments haven’t provided sufficient support for managing compulsive urges and behaviors, our ketamine infusions may offer a different approach through memory reconsolidation and neuroplasticity mechanisms that target the learned associations underlying addictive behaviors.
It’s critically important to understand that evidence for ketamine treating behavioral addictions is extremely preliminary. Research is in very early stages with a small pilot study recently completed but results not yet published.
Unlike ketamine for depression or substance use disorders where multiple studies exist, behavioral addiction research consists primarily of theoretical rationale and one exploratory study. We discuss this evidence limitation transparently so you can make fully informed decisions about pursuing experimental treatment.
Every treatment journey begins with a thorough evaluation where we review your behavioral addiction history including specific compulsive behaviors (gambling, gaming, sexual behavior, binge eating, etc.), onset, frequency, and severity of behaviors, triggers and situational factors, impact on functioning, relationships, and finances, previous treatment attempts and outcomes, co-occurring mental health conditions especially depression, anxiety, or substance use, and current behavioral addiction treatment engagement. This assessment helps determine whether experimental ketamine therapy might be appropriate as an adjunctive intervention.
Behavioral addictions, also called process addictions, are compulsive engagement in rewarding behaviors despite harmful consequences. Unlike substance addictions involving external chemicals, behavioral addictions center on naturally rewarding activities that become compulsive and dysregulated. The most extensively studied and clinically recognized behavioral addictions include gambling disorder, internet gaming disorder, compulsive sexual behavior, and binge eating disorder.
These conditions share core features with substance use disorders including loss of control over the behavior despite intentions to limit it, continued engagement despite negative consequences, preoccupation with the behavior and strong urges or craving to engage, tolerance requiring increased engagement for satisfaction, and withdrawal-like symptoms including irritability, restlessness, or mood disturbance when unable to engage. These similarities suggest shared neurobiological mechanisms.
Gambling disorder is the most established behavioral addiction, recognized in the DSM-5 as a disorder characterized by persistent and recurrent problematic gambling behavior leading to clinically significant impairment or distress. Individuals with gambling disorder continue gambling despite financial losses, relationship problems, and other harmful consequences. The disorder affects an estimated 0.5-2% of adults, with higher rates among certain populations.
Internet gaming disorder, included in the DSM-5 as a condition requiring further research, involves persistent and recurrent use of internet games leading to significant impairment or distress. Individuals lose control over gaming, prioritize gaming over other activities and interests, and continue excessive gaming despite negative consequences. Prevalence estimates vary widely, with some research suggesting 1-3% of gamers meet criteria for disorder.
Other behavioral addictions lack formal diagnostic recognition but cause significant impairment including compulsive sexual behavior involving loss of control over sexual thoughts, urges, or behaviors, compulsive buying involving excessive purchasing that causes financial problems and distress, exercise addiction involving compulsive exercise patterns interfering with health and functioning, and internet addiction involving compulsive use of internet beyond gaming.
The neurobiological basis of behavioral addictions involves the same brain reward circuits implicated in substance addictions. Engaging in naturally rewarding behaviors—gambling wins, gaming achievements, sexual activity, eating palatable foods—activates dopamine pathways in the nucleus accumbens and related structures. With repeated engagement, these circuits become dysregulated. Cue-induced craving develops where environmental triggers activate powerful urges. Prefrontal cortex control over impulses weakens. Tolerance develops requiring escalating engagement.
Importantly, learning and memory processes play crucial roles in behavioral addictions. Through repeated pairings, environmental cues become strongly associated with the rewarding behavior and the activation of reward circuits. Seeing a casino, hearing gaming sounds, or encountering other cues triggers intense craving and urges to engage. These learned associations are consolidated into long-term memory through glutamatergic mechanisms involving NMDA receptors. The strength of these memories contributes to compulsive behavior and relapse vulnerability.
Treatment for behavioral addictions typically involves cognitive-behavioral therapy addressing distorted thinking patterns and teaching behavioral control strategies, exposure with response prevention for gambling disorder, motivational enhancement therapy, support groups like Gamblers Anonymous, and addressing co-occurring conditions. For gambling disorder specifically, opioid antagonists like naltrexone show some efficacy. However, many individuals don’t respond adequately to these interventions or experience repeated relapses.
Ketamine’s potential for treating behavioral addictions stems primarily from its effects on memory reconsolidation rather than its broader neuroplastic effects. Memory reconsolidation is the process by which existing memories become temporarily unstable when reactivated, allowing modification before being restabilized. Research suggests that interfering with reconsolidation can weaken the strength of addiction-related memories.
When a consolidated memory is retrieved—for example, when someone with gambling disorder sees slot machines—the memory trace becomes transiently destabilized and enters a labile state. Normally, the memory then undergoes reconsolidation, being saved again in strengthened form. However, intervening during this reconsolidation window can disrupt the process, potentially weakening the memory.
Ketamine functions as a noncompetitive NMDA receptor antagonist. NMDA receptors are critical for memory reconsolidation processes. Scientific research shows that administering NMDA receptor antagonists during memory reactivation can prevent reconsolidation, resulting in lasting attenuation of the memory. This has been demonstrated for drug-related memories, fear memories, and reward-associated memories.
The theoretical rationale for ketamine treating behavioral addictions follows this logic: If addiction-related memories (associations between cues and rewarding behaviors) are reactivated during a ketamine session, the NMDA antagonism might prevent their reconsolidation. Over multiple sessions targeting different addiction-related memories, the cumulative weakening of these memory traces might reduce cue-induced craving and compulsive urges, making it easier to maintain behavioral control.
A research team led by Professor Celia Morgan at the University of Exeter designed a study specifically testing this approach for behavioral addictions. The protocol involved reactivating addiction-related memories by exposing participants to relevant cues—showing gambling stimuli to people with gambling disorder, gaming content to those with gaming disorder, etc.—while ketamine was present in their system. The hypothesis was that this pairing would weaken the memories driving compulsive behavior.
This study, sponsored by Awakn Life Sciences, examined ketamine for gambling disorder, internet gaming disorder, binge eating disorder, and compulsive sexual behavior. The study has reportedly completed, but results have not been published in peer-reviewed journals as of yet. Without published results, the actual efficacy remains unknown.
Additional mechanisms beyond memory reconsolidation may contribute if ketamine proves beneficial. Ketamine promotes broader neuroplasticity that might facilitate learning new behavioral patterns. Ketamine’s rapid antidepressant effects could address co-occurring depression that perpetuates behavioral addictions. The disruption of functional brain networks might alter reward processing. However, the memory reconsolidation hypothesis represents the primary theoretical basis for this application.
Your treatment journey at Ketavita begins with comprehensive evaluation to determine whether experimental ketamine therapy is appropriate. We’ll discuss your behavioral addiction history in detail including specific compulsive behaviors and patterns, frequency and duration of engagement, situations or emotions that trigger urges, consequences you’ve experienced (financial, relational, occupational, health), previous treatment attempts including therapy and medications, and current behavioral addiction treatment status.
Understanding co-occurring conditions is essential since psychiatric disorders commonly accompany behavioral addictions: history and current symptoms of depression or anxiety, substance use or substance use disorders, impulsivity or attention problems, trauma history, and whether psychiatric symptoms preceded the behavioral addiction or developed afterward. Treating these comorbidities is important for overall outcomes.
We’ll evaluate your current functioning and support systems: impact of compulsive behaviors on work, finances, relationships, living situation and whether it supports recovery, involvement in support groups or ongoing therapy, and motivation and readiness for change. Recovery from behavioral addictions requires comprehensive support.
For experimental ketamine therapy for behavioral addictions, protocols would ideally involve cue exposure during ketamine sessions to reactivate addiction-related memories, similar to the research protocol. However, implementing this properly requires careful protocol development. During each session, you’ll receive IV or IM ketamine infusion while resting in a comfortable treatment room with continuous medical monitoring.
You may experience dissociative effects during your infusion including feelings of detachment, altered perception, mild changes in consciousness, drowsiness, and temporary relaxation. These effects typically resolve within 1-2 hours after infusion completion.
Common side effects are generally mild and short-lasting including temporary dissociative sensations, dizziness or lightheadedness, mild nausea, brief perceptual changes, drowsiness, and temporary blood pressure elevation.
After each treatment session, you’ll spend additional time in our office for recovery and monitoring. You cannot drive for 24 hours after ketamine treatment and must bring someone to drive you home.
Response to experimental ketamine therapy for behavioral addictions is completely unknown since research results haven’t been published. We cannot predict efficacy or durability of any benefits. We track your response using standardized measures of compulsive urges, behavioral frequency, and overall functioning to assess whether ketamine provides meaningful benefit.
Experimental ketamine therapy for behavioral addictions may be considered if you have a diagnosed or clinically significant behavioral addiction, have tried conventional behavioral treatments with inadequate response, are willing to participate in experimental treatment with uncertain outcomes, are actively engaged or willing to engage in evidence-based behavioral therapy, have realistic expectations about the preliminary nature of this approach, and don’t have contraindications including active psychosis or significant cardiovascular disease.
Individuals considering experimental treatment should understand they are essentially participating in early clinical exploration of a treatment approach with minimal supporting evidence. The one completed study has not published results. We cannot make evidence-based predictions about efficacy, optimal protocols, durability of benefits, or long-term outcomes.
Good candidates are individuals with treatment-resistant behavioral addictions who understand the experimental nature of this intervention and view it as adjunctive to—not replacing—evidence-based behavioral therapy. Openness to trying novel approaches despite uncertain outcomes is essential.
Important limitations to understand: Evidence for ketamine treating behavioral addictions is extremely preliminary—essentially one small pilot study with unpublished results. This is in contrast to ketamine for depression (extensive evidence) or substance use disorders (growing evidence). The theoretical rationale based on memory reconsolidation is scientifically sound, but whether it actually produces clinical benefit for behavioral addictions remains unproven.
Additionally, optimal protocols are unknown. The research protocol involved cue exposure during ketamine sessions, but this requires careful implementation. The number of sessions needed, optimal dosing, and whether benefits persist long-term are all unanswered questions.
Our ketamine protocols for behavioral addictions are informed by the theoretical rationale for memory reconsolidation disruption and the limited information available about the completed but unpublished research study. We cannot cite published efficacy data because none exists yet. We proceed based on: one, the established neuroscience of memory reconsolidation and NMDA receptor involvement; two, animal research showing NMDA antagonism can disrupt reconsolidation of addiction-related memories; three, the theoretical extension to behavioral addictions where learned associations are similarly critical; and four, the fact that a human study was deemed ethical and scientifically justified enough to proceed.
However, we emphasize that human efficacy data for behavioral addictions does not yet exist in published form. Individuals considering this treatment are participating in exploratory clinical application of a promising but unproven approach.
Safety protocols are standard. We conduct thorough medical and psychiatric screening. All ketamine administrations occur under medical supervision with continuous monitoring. We coordinate with your behavioral addiction treatment providers if you’re engaged in ongoing therapy.
We strongly emphasize continued engagement with evidence-based behavioral addiction treatment including cognitive-behavioral therapy, exposure-based interventions for gambling disorder, support groups, treatment of co-occurring psychiatric conditions, addressing practical consequences (financial, relational, occupational), and development of alternative rewarding activities and coping strategies.
Behavioral addictions are chronic conditions typically requiring sustained treatment. Ketamine, if it proves beneficial, would be an adjunctive intervention enhancing rather than replacing comprehensive behavioral treatment.
Patient education is paramount given the experimental nature. We ensure you understand the extremely preliminary evidence base (one unpublished study), the theoretical rationale based on memory reconsolidation, that you’re participating in exploratory clinical application, realistic expectations about uncertain outcomes, potential risks of ketamine treatment, and how this fits within comprehensive behavioral addiction care.
Experimental ketamine therapy for behavioral addictions is not covered by insurance. We provide transparent pricing information during your consultation.
Both IV ketamine therapy and IM ketamine therapy cost $395 per session. Treatment protocols are uncertain, but would likely involve multiple sessions. We discuss expected costs during initial consultation.
Given the experimental nature and lack of published efficacy data, individuals should carefully consider whether this financial investment is appropriate given uncertain outcomes.
We can provide receipts and clinical documentation, but insurance coverage for experimental treatment with minimal supporting evidence is extremely unlikely.
If you’re struggling with a treatment-resistant behavioral addiction and interested in exploring experimental approaches based on promising neuroscientific mechanisms, ketamine therapy at Ketavita Wellness Clinic may be considered as an adjunctive intervention alongside evidence-based behavioral treatment.
Schedule a consultation to discuss your behavioral addiction and treatment history, review the theoretical rationale and extremely preliminary evidence, understand the experimental nature and uncertain outcomes, and determine whether this exploratory approach might be appropriate.
Treatment for behavioral addictions is challenging, and novel approaches based on sound neuroscience may eventually prove beneficial. Contact us today to learn more about this experimental treatment option.
Note: This review discusses ketamine for substance use disorders and theoretical mechanisms relevant to addiction broadly, including memory reconsolidation. It does not provide empirical evidence for behavioral addiction treatment specifically, as such evidence does not yet exist in published form.
Addiction & Behavioral Health
Conditions Treated
365 Franklin Avenue, Wyckoff, NJ 07481