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Is Ketamine Therapy Legal in Indiana?

Yes. Ketamine is a federal Schedule III controlled substance, and physicians licensed in Indiana may prescribe and administer it — including off-label for depression, which means for a purpose the FDA has not formally approved.

The federal baseline

Ketamine and its mirror-image form esketamine are Schedule III controlled substances under federal law, which means they have accepted medical uses but can be misused. as of 18 Jul 2026 · U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (source 2, opens in a new tab)Esketamine has no separate DEA listing; it is covered as an enantiomer of ketamine, and the Spravato label carries the CIII designation.

Only esketamine (Spravato) is FDA-approved to treat depression. Racemic ketamine given by IV, injection, or under the tongue has no FDA approval for any psychiatric condition and is used off-label — that is, an approved drug used for an unapproved purpose. as of 30 Apr 2025 · U.S. Food and Drug Administration (source 2, opens in a new tab)

The FDA approved Spravato (esketamine) nasal spray on 5 March 2019, for use with an oral antidepressant, for adults with treatment-resistant depression. as of 5 Mar 2019 · U.S. Food and Drug Administration (source 4, opens in a new tab)

Spravato is available only through a restricted safety programme called a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS), and may only be given in a certified healthcare setting under a provider's direct observation. Patients never take it home. as of 30 Apr 2025 · U.S. Food and Drug Administration (source 5, opens in a new tab)

Indiana law: who may give it

Indiana medical doctors and osteopathic physicians may administer ketamine within their scope of practice. An advanced practice nurse needs a written collaborative practice agreement with a physician plus state and federal controlled substance registrations before prescribing it. A physician assistant may prescribe and administer only what their collaborating physician has delegated. A certified registered nurse anaesthetist may administer anaesthesia only under a physician's direction and in that physician's immediate presence, and has no independent prescribing authority. as of 1 Jan 2026 · Indiana Professional Licensing Agency (source 2, opens in a new tab)

Who may own a clinic in Indiana

Indiana is comparatively permissive about corporate ownership of medical practices. State law provides an express safe harbour for employment and contractual relationships between licensed hospitals and physicians, so the restrictions that shape clinic ownership in some other states apply less strongly here. as of 1 Jan 2026 · Indiana Code (source 1, opens in a new tab)

This matters to you only indirectly, but it shapes which clinics exist here and how they are structured.

Indiana Scheduled Prescription Electronic Collection and Tracking (INSPECT)

Prescription monitoring is where published information about ketamine most often goes wrong, because three different questions get collapsed into one. They have different answers.

What must be reported

Indiana's monitoring system is INSPECT, run by the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency. Every controlled substance dispensed in Indiana must be reported to it within twenty-four hours, or by the close of the next business day where the dispenser is closed. Gabapentin has been tracked alongside controlled substances since July 2019. as of 1 Jul 2019 · Indiana Professional Licensing Agency (source 2, opens in a new tab)

When a prescriber must check

Indiana's mandatory INSPECT lookup, created by Senate Enrolled Act 221 of 2018, covers exactly two categories of medicine: opioids and benzodiazepines. Nothing outside those two categories carries a lookup requirement. as of 1 Jul 2018 · Indiana Professional Licensing Agency (source 2, opens in a new tab)

Does this apply to ketamine?

No. Ketamine sits outside both categories Indiana's lookup rule covers, and the rule attaches to prescribing and dispensing rather than to administering — so an infusion given to you inside a clinic falls outside it on a second, independent ground. Dispensing is still reported to INSPECT; it is the prescriber lookup that does not apply. as of 1 Jul 2018 · Indiana Professional Licensing Agency (source 2, opens in a new tab)Material published elsewhere, including a previous version of this site, has stated that Indiana prescribers must check INSPECT before prescribing any controlled substance including ketamine. That is not what the statute says.

Telehealth

An Indiana prescriber generally may not issue a controlled substance prescription by telehealth without a prior in-person examination. A statutory exception exists, but it carries its own conditions including a valid controlled substance registration. In practice, expect your first appointment to be in person. as of 1 Jan 2026 · Indiana Code (source 6, opens in a new tab)Federal DEA telemedicine flexibilities run separately and expire at the end of 2026, but they do not override a stricter state rule.

Through 31 December 2026, clinicians registered with the DEA may prescribe controlled medicines such as ketamine after a video telemedicine visit, without an in-person examination first. as of 1 Jan 2026 · Drug Enforcement Administration (source 1, opens in a new tab)This is the fourth temporary extension. Each of the previous three was issued close to its expiry date, so the position may change late in 2026.

The DEA's proposed rule to create a special registration for prescribing controlled medicines by telemedicine, published on 17 January 2025, is still only a proposal and has not been finalised. as of 17 Jan 2025 · Drug Enforcement Administration (source 1, opens in a new tab)No final rule and no withdrawal notice has been published. A rule can also be shelved without a formal withdrawal, so this should not be read as a statement that the DEA intends to finalise it.

Two things are worth holding onto here. The federal flexibility has a hard end date and has been extended four times at short notice, so anything you read about telehealth ketamine access needs a date attached to it. And a stricter state rule still applies regardless of what federal law permits.

Spravato is a separate case entirely: it must be taken in a certified clinic under observation, so it cannot be prescribed for home use whatever the telehealth position is.

How to check a clinician before you book

  1. Go to the Medical Licensing Board of Indiana licence lookup.
  2. Search by name, and confirm the licence is current and unrestricted.
  3. Look for disciplinary history. It is published for a reason, and it is the single most useful thing you can check in five minutes.
  4. If you are seeking Spravato specifically, confirm the clinic is REMS-certified using the official locator . No other directory, including ours, can tell you that.