IHMC kicks off 2025 evening lecture series on Jan 23
Dr. Johnathan Edwards will discuss the use of ketamine in treating mental health issues.

Dr. Johnathan Edwards [Photo courtesy IHMC]
The Institute for Human & Machine Cognition Ocala evening lecture series for this year will lead off with Dr. Johnathan Edwards discussing “Ketamine: From Anesthetic to Healer” on Jan. 23 in downtown Ocala.
Dr. Thomas Insel, former director of the National Institutes of Mental Health, believes that ketamine “is the most important breakthrough in mental health in 50 years,” according to materials provided by IHMC Ocala.
“Multiple studies have demonstrated the efficacy of ketamine to treat suicidality, depression and PTSD. Controversial psychedelics like ketamine save lives. Edwards’ discussion in Ocala will look at suicide’s devastating cost to society and how to prevent it, and how ketamine stops suicide in its tracks,” the material notes.
Edwards is a practicing anesthesiologist and visiting physician at IHMC. Through 20 years of experience, he has used ketamine extensively to treat mental health issues. He co-authored “The Revolutionary Ketamine” with Gavin de Becker to spread the message that ketamine can save lives. He also has published several other books.
Edwards grew up in the Mojave Desert in California, aspired to be a professional motocross racer and then decided to attend medical school. He received his A.S. at Victor Valley Community College, a B.S. in physiology at UC Davis, an M.D. at the Eastern Virginia Medical School, Internal Medicine at the University of Nevada, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the University of Utah, Neurology at the University of Claude Bernard in Lyon, France, and completed his anesthesiology residency in Tampa at the University of South Florida. After years in private practice, he returned to research and is now earning his Ph.D. in neurophysiology at the University of Paris.
To learn more about the doctor, the “Gazette” did an email question and answer session with him.
Q: It seems you’re a bit of a daredevil/competitive athlete. When did that begin?
A: From a very young age, all I ever wanted to do was race motorcycles. Growing up in the desert in California, I rode my motorcycle every day. I was obsessed with racing motocross. My uncle raced off-road motorcycles and was very good at it, and my grandfather raced Porches on the SCCA circuit until he was 82. He was the oldest racer in the SCCA; only Paul Newman beat his record, I believe.
My mom wanted me to go to school and she gave me a choice: pay rent or go to school. I did achieve my dream of racing professionally, but I had a near-career-ending accident at 18. I was one of the best amateur motocross racers in the country and I broke my tibial plateau and needed a bone graft from my hip to repair it. I was attending college at the time to appease my mom, with no intention of finishing since racing was my priority. But, during that time, I had to recover from my knee injury and a chemistry professor, Dr. Chimklis, took me under her wing. I made good grades and learned how to study. I returned to motocross, but it was becoming a financial burden. I was on the cusp of signing a sponsor when I nearly broke my knee again. When I went into the ER to have my knee evaluated, I made a deal with myself and God: if my knee was broken again, I would keep racing, even if I broke every bone in my body. But if my knee wasn’t broken, I would sell everything and go full-time to school to become a doctor. The ER physician showed me the X-ray and said my knee was fine and I could go home. I remember making the sign of the cross limping out of the ER and the rest is history!
Q: When did you know you wanted to be a scientist/doctor/researcher?
A: I thought about physical therapy, but when I saw that the top of sports medicine was being a doctor, I knew that was my aim. I worked very hard in VVC and did well. Then, I transferred to UC Davis and enrolled in biology. I had to step it up to get good grades. I remember many times people, counselors and others telling me I would never get into medical school since I didn’t have an academic history. That only made me want to work harder, and I knew I could do it since I had already built the determination from racing motorcycles. Basically, I applied that determination to my pre-med courses and also met the right people and studied hard. I earned the grades I needed and made the Dean’s List.
In my first interviews to get into medical school, there were doctors who told me that since I had not wanted to become a doctor since grade school, “I wasn’t made for it.” It wasn’t until a family doctor looked at me, my work ethic and my grades and told me I would make a great doctor that I was accepted into medical school.
Q: How did you become involved with ketamine/suicide?
A: My grandfather committed suicide when I was 7 years old. I remember the day vividly. My parents told me I was going to Grandma’s and I entered the house and all my relatives were crying, especially my grandmother. It was a lot to take in, and I didn’t understand.
My grandfather was born on an Indian reservation and it was explained to me that when he was diagnosed with COPD and needed to be put on oxygen, he was not meant to be on earth any longer and had no hesitations about taking his life. He also was depressed and in pain from working all of his life. He was a person with alcoholism, which undoubtedly played a part.
Fast forward to medical school, I was very interested in why people committed suicide. It seemed unimaginable, but I saw so many patients in the psychiatric ward who had attempted suicide. I wondered why we didn’t have something to stop suicide. In the ‘90s, there was honestly nothing except electric shock therapy.
As an anesthesiologist, I became aware of ketamine. I always knew it was a great anesthetic and used it in many surgeries. I remember when the research came out about how ketamine could stop suicide in the 2000s. The use of ketamine for mental health was not considered standard, but I took notice. Although I didn’t find myself in a position to use ketamine to stop suicide until much later, I always read the literature and spoke with psychiatrists.
Then, when I met Gavin de Becker, he asked me: “Johnathan, what do you think about ketamine?” Gavin is brilliant, and I wondered why he asked me. I said it was a drug I had used in my anesthetic practice; I appreciated that it could stop suicide and treat depression. He said, “Johnathan, I am glad that you answered my question that way, and I just want to let you know that I was prepared if you were to answer the question the other way.” I was intrigued with what the “other way” was. Gavin had already been helping some women in a shelter he assisted with, providing ketamine treatments for suicide. and knew it helped. He had encountered much resistance to suggesting ketamine to people because they thought it was only a party drug and for use in animals.
He told me the book needed to be written and that if I wrote it, he would write the forward. I was taken aback because it’s not every day that the author of a bestseller, “The Gift of Fear,” offers to help you with a book. I had written two other books by this point, so I understood the value of his offer. So, I signed up for the adventure of my life. The first book was “Suicide, Covid-19, and Ketamine – How a little-known drug saves lives.” That book was pretty dark and covered the suicides that happened because of the lockdowns and pandemics, especially in children. I self-published that book and then Skyhorse Publishing offered to write a second edition, which we called “Revolutionary Ketamine.”
The “Revolutionary Ketamine” sold many copies, and I gave a talk on it in New York, called “SPEAK HEALTH,” which is a competitor to TED Talks and can be found on YouTube. Today, I have clinics where I give ketamine to people diagnosed with suicide and depression. I have seen ketamine stop suicide personally and believe in the treatment.
Q: Why would ketamine scare people?
A: For two reasons: it is known as a party drug and a horse tranquilizer. Ketamine, as it is used as a party drug, has nothing to do with how it is used in hospitals or ketamine clinics. Street ketamine comes in a powder, is snorted like cocaine and is often laced with other drugs like fentanyl. Ketamine used in a clinic comes in a sterile vial, is inspected, given at a tenth of the dose and is safe.
The vision of ketamine being used to put down large animals also gives the drug a bad name. Most people have no idea that ketamine is safely used in the hospital, especially in children. It is on the World Health Organization list of essential medications as it is still the most utilized anesthetic in the world. It can be used in rural medical settings and other countries without developed medical systems.
Q: When did it become legal and more readily available?
A: Only recently did a form of ketamine get FDA approval to treat mental illness. Other than that, physicians use ketamine “off-label” to treat suicide and depression. It is important to realize that over 80 percent of all medications are used “off-label” in one form or another. It was in the early 2000s that healthcare practitioners began using ketamine in a mental health setting. The studies are irrefutable, as are many anecdotal cases in which ketamine has saved lives. Today, there are over 500 ketamine clinics in the U.S., and in Europe as well. Providing ketamine to more people will hopefully make a difference in the more than 50,000 people who successfully take their own lives from suicide each year.
Ketamine works because it changes the hope equation. Suicide is, by definition, isolation, burden, severe depression and hopelessness in a vulnerable situation with a lethal means. Once a person goes through a ketamine experience—and it is a journey—they come out with changed hope. The person always needs therapy to move forward, but ketamine can help the depression and give that person time to gather themselves and get the help they need.
Q: How did you become involved with IHMC?
A: Through my interest in attending the IHMC lectures, I got to know Laurie Zink, who made it possible for me to meet Dr. Ken Ford. We hit it off during my visit to Pensacola and we have since worked together on other projects, such as my Ph.D. in France and the Bluesky project about dealing with Florida firefighters and suicide.
Edwards lives in Port Orange with his wife, Mai Linh, daughter Charlotte, and a Boston Terrier. They also live part-time in Provence, France.
“I did part of my studies in France and am a fluent French speaker. I am a competitive cyclist and tennis player and continue to write books. I also work part-time for Gavin de Becker and Associates as the medical director for the organization,” he shared.
The IHMC evening lectures begin with a reception at 5:30 p.m. at 15 SE Osceola Ave., followed by the talk at 6 p.m. They are free to attend but seating is limited. To RSVP, go to ihmc.us/lectures/20250123