--- title: "Side Effects of Ketamine Could Explain a Lot About Elon Musk’s Behavior" description: "Amid his newfound role as unelected government wrecker, Elon Musk's use of the powerful tranquilizer ketamine is once again in the press." date: "2025-03-09" modified: "2025-03-09" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/elon-musk-drug-explanation" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "ketamine" - "mental health" - "politics" --- # Side Effects of Ketamine Could Explain a Lot About Elon Musk’s Behavior ![Amid his newfound role as unelected government wrecker, Elon Musk's use of the powerful tranquilizer ketamine is once again in the press.]() *\Image: Shawn Thew / Pool via Getty / Futurism\* Amid his newfound role as [unelected government wrecker](), Elon Musk's use of the powerful tranquilizer ketamine is once again in the press. As [*The Atlantic* reports](), research into the effects of sustained ketamine use may offer some insights into the increasingly bizarre antics of the South African-born gem mining scion who's admitted to [using the drug to treat depression]() — and who's allegedly indulged in it [for recreational purposes](), too. Back in 2010, English psychopharmacology researcher Celia Morgan, then a professor at University College London, published a [study in the journal *Addiction*]() that tracked 120 frequent recreational ketamine users for a year. As Morgan told *The Atlantic*, everyone in that cohort — from those who used it three times a month on average to those who did it 20 times per month — had "profound" short- and long-term memory issues and were "distinctly dissociated in their day-to-day existence." Along with those unsettling side effects, the psychopharmacology researcher and her team also found that regular users scored very high on delusional thinking scales and seemed to be convinced that they were receiving secret messages sent to them alone. Sounds [kind of familiar](), right? Delusions of grandeur are not, obviously, the sole provenance of ketamine users, and there's little doubt Musk had an outsized opinion of himself long before he discovered "Special K." But [his behavior]() in [recent years]() has grown [more and more erratic](), especially in the [since his purchase of Twitter](), in ways that seem to track with those descriptions of frequent ketamine use side effects. In a 2023 [exposé for *The New Yorker*](), journalist Ronan Farrow revealed that people close to the billionaire had grown concerned about his alleged ket habit, which those unnamed sources claimed had grown in then-recent years. Paired with his increasing self-imposed isolation and the stress from the many businesses he owns, those associates were worried that Musk may have been self-medicating. Less than a year after that article dropped, Musk revealed to former *CNN* host Don Lemon that he does, in fact, use ketamine — but as he claimed in the [March 2024 interview](), he has a prescription for it and only used it every other week. Though there aren't studies into the long-term effects of prescription ketamine dosages, that would put him within the threshold that Morgan, the English psychopharmacologist, described as "regular" use that can lead to memory impairment and delusions. Between then and now, a lot has changed for the multi-hyphenate drug enthusiast — and if he's still using his special medicine with any regularity, it could very easily be affecting his work as [Donald Trump's hatchet man](). **More on Musk:** [*One of Elon Musk’s DOGE Staffers Used to Sell Ketamine Professionally*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()