Treatment for Depression

TikTok videos about using ketamine for depression. There are two main hashtags that people use to broadcast their experiences with ketamine as a treatment for depression: #ketaminetherapy and #ketaminetiktok. These have earned more than 40 million views as of 2022. Though TikTok doesn't return any results when users search for the word ketamine, the company confirmed to Mashable that content related to ketamine therapy doesn't violate the platform's community guidelines against promoting illicit drug use since it documents a medical treatment.

Are these videos promoting illegal drug use? Or reducing the stigma associated with treatment-resistant depression? These depictions of treatment may lack appropriate context about risks and benefits and persuade people to try something potentially unsafe that they don't fully understand.