Can You Advertise Ketamine Therapy on Meta?

What this means for you

• Clinic and care ads run now: the evaluation, the clinicians, the setting, the monitoring and the price. Meta requires health service ads to target people 18 and over.
• An ad that promotes ketamine as a treatment is a prescription drug ad. Meta requires active LegitScript certification and its own authorization, and the policy has no separate route for in-person clinics.
• Meta bars ads that promote or encourage the use of recreational or unsafe drugs, in a section that also covers non-medical drugs and entheogens. Trip, journey and psychedelic framing invites that reading.
• Ketamine is not FDA-approved for any psychiatric disorder, and compounded ketamine is compounded, not FDA-approved. Ads make no depression, anxiety or PTSD cure claims.
• "Treatment-resistant depression?" fails Meta's personal attributes rule. "Depression treatment with licensed clinicians" describes the service instead.

MedScale Health, a paid acquisition agency for telehealth brands and clinics, plans Meta campaigns for ketamine clinics and telehealth mental health programs. This page sets out how Meta's drug, health and privacy rules apply to ketamine therapy, what each model can run, and the claims that end campaigns. This page is marketing guidance, not medical or legal advice. Platform policies change, so check the sources listed at the end before acting on a specific rule.

Two parts of Meta's drug policy apply

Meta's Drugs and Pharmaceuticals policy has a section on high-risk drugs, non-medical drugs and entheogens. It bars ads that promote the sale or use of "illicit or recreational drugs, or other unsafe substances, products or supplements, as determined by Meta at its sole discretion", and ads that encourage their consumption. Ketamine has a recreational reputation, and words like trip, journey or psychedelic push an ad toward that section, whatever the clinic means by them.

The prescription drugs section is the other half. Ketamine is a prescription drug, so an ad that promotes it as a treatment needs a qualified advertiser: actively certified with LegitScript, authorized by Meta, carrying a disclaimer to consult a licensed health professional or obtain a valid prescription, and targeting only people 18 and over in the United States, Canada or New Zealand where it is certified. The policy names online pharmacies, telehealth providers and pharmaceutical manufacturers. It does not create a separate route for in-person clinics, so a clinic that wants to name ketamine in ads should get Meta's answer before relying on it.

What the clinic can run before that

Meta's policy exempts ads that educate about prescription drugs and ads that promote telehealth services generally. For an in-person clinic, the safe ground is the care itself: who the clinicians are, how the evaluation works, the treatment room and monitoring, aftercare and the price. The education exemption covers genuine information, not a promotion with an information label, so an explainer ad that ends in "book your ketamine session" is still a prescription drug ad.

What the FDA has and hasn't approved

An FDA warning letter from June 23, 2026 sets out the position plainly. FDA-approved ketamine, sold as KETALAR, is a Schedule III controlled substance given by intravenous or intramuscular injection as a general anesthetic, and ketamine is not FDA-approved for the treatment of any psychiatric disorder. Esketamine, sold as SPRAVATO, is FDA-approved as a nasal spray for treatment-resistant depression in adults and for depressive symptoms in adults with major depressive disorder with acute suicidal ideation or behavior, used with an oral antidepressant. It carries a boxed warning and is available only through a REMS program that requires it to be given in certified, medically supervised settings with at least two hours of monitoring.

So a clinic that offers ketamine for depression, anxiety or PTSD is using it off-label, and an ad that promises it will treat or cure those conditions makes a claim the FDA has not approved. Meta's health policy adds its own limit on sensational claims and timed outcome promises without qualifiers.

At-home and telehealth ketamine

A telehealth program that assesses people online and ships ketamine home is a telehealth provider promoting a prescription drug the moment the ad names it. On top of Meta's LegitScript and authorization requirement, prescribing a Schedule III controlled substance by telemedicine without an in-person evaluation relies on the DEA's temporary flexibilities, which the fourth extension (Federal Register document 2025-24123) keeps in effect through December 31, 2026. The FDA has also issued compounding risk alerts on compounded ketamine nasal spray (February 16, 2022) and on compounded ketamine products, including oral formulations, for psychiatric disorders (October 10, 2023). At-home ketamine products made by compounding pharmacies are compounded, not FDA-approved.

Copy, addiction and the pixel

Meta's personal attributes policy bars ads that assert or imply a viewer's mental health. Its own examples: "Depression counseling" passes, "Depression getting you down? Get help now." fails. Hooks about treatment-resistant depression, PTSD or feeling stuck fail for the same reason.

If the clinic markets ketamine for alcohol or drug use disorders, Meta's Drug and Alcohol Addiction Treatment policy applies as well: US advertisers need LegitScript certification and Meta's written permission for in-person or online addiction treatment ads.

Meta also lists mental health, medical procedures and treatments, and places of treatment among the information advertisers must not share through its business tools, including in event names and URL parameters. MedScale tracks server-side under a BAA with neutral event names, and no names, emails, phone numbers, IP addresses or browser IDs go to any ad platform.

What still gets rejected

• Ads that name, price or picture ketamine before LegitScript certification and Meta's authorization.
• Trip, journey or psychedelic framing, and anything that reads as recreational use.
• Depression, anxiety or PTSD cure claims, success rates and timelines.
• Hooks that imply the viewer's diagnosis.
• Addiction treatment ads without LegitScript certification and Meta's permission.

What MedScale does

MedScale Health runs ketamine clinics on Meta care-first: clinic-layer ads about the clinicians, the evaluation and the setting, landing pages that state who is eligible and that a licensed provider decides, and server-side tracking of booked consultations. Where the model is telehealth or the clinic wants to name ketamine, MedScale's LegitScript certification help runs the filing and the Meta authorization request alongside. No approval or result is guaranteed. Start with the free growth audit at medscale.health/audit.