Dr. Ben Yudkoff, Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer at Lumin Health, hosted a Reddit AMA on the Spravato community on November 21, 2025. The below blog post is a recap of one of the questions presented on that AMA, syndicated to the Lumin Health blog in the event that it answers any questions about ketamine therapy, Spravato treatment, or general concerns you may have about treatment.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Spravato/comments/1p2ar6v/ama_im_dr_ben_yudkoff_psychiatrist_cofounder/
Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you’re interested in learning more about ketamine for depression at Lumin Health. Thank you once again to the moderators and community members for facilitating such an engaging discussion.
metalheartmom asks:
Hi Dr.Ben, I've often seen and heard of others suggesting to hang your head off the recliner or get in an upside-down position after spraying spravato in order to get the most out of the liquid going into the nasal cavity? Would you back this up with a scientific explanation? Why or why not?
Answer:
MetalHeartMom, that is definitely a metal way of taking the medication! First and foremost, I would recommend against going into an upside down position after snorting the esketamine simply because, at baseline, the medicine can cause some difficulty coordinating and some balance issues - now you might be adding some acrobatics to the mix and it could be a recipe for getting hurt.
Hanging one's head off of the recliner is interesting and not something that I've heard of doing. In theory, the practice could work because you're avoiding the medicine dripping down your throat - more of it will stay in the sinus passageway for longer and give more opportunity to absorb more of it. That's a really interesting idea. I've been in this Spravato world for 5 years now and haven't heard about this solution -- it's an interesting and creative answer to the question of "how do I keep as much of the medicine connected to be mucous membranes." Now comes the risk side of things: the medicine wasn't studied with this sort of approach and potentially absorbing more of the medicine might make side effects more possible. There's also just the plain question of comfort in twisting oneself up and risking some motion sickness in re-establishing a sitting or recumbent position. That said, I really appreciate the question and how new it is. You're definitely making me think! I can't directly advocate for it because it stands outside of the labeling recommendations and there may be risk in increasing the absorption so much that other kinds of side effects could materialize. I guess there's some concerns about just twisting around yourself to get your head hanging of the recliner.
Talk with your providers. If you're having any issues around efficacy and you and your providers are considering the benefit of higher doses, talk this through with them and how they might help support any changes to the end of helping you feel better!
