Kratom for Mental Health?

Main Chapters:

People in southeast Asia have been chewing kratom leaves for centuries to stay more alert during boring tasks, treat nausea and fevers, and alleviate pain and opioid withdrawal. Kratom use in the US and Europe didn't really start until the last years of the 1990's, and was mainly middle aged people taking powdered forms of the leaf to alleviate pain or symptoms of depression, anxiety, ADHD or opiate withdrawal. But in the last few years, highly purified forms of kratom, with much more powerful binding to the mu-opioid receptor, have become much more widely available and promoted. Accompanying this, there has been a surge of overdoses and deaths with kratom, often in combination with other drugs, but sometimes just kratom. Often these newer products are not labeled in ways that alert users to the potential dangers. Currently two very different products - dried, ground up leaves, and a purified, potent drug that binds to opiate receptors, are being marketed under the same name "kratom".

As of April 2026, no randomly controlled human trials have been conducted with kratom to treat any condition, including ADHD. Although folk medicine and basic pharmacology suggest kratom may alleviate some ADHD symptoms, given the issues with product labeling, any users of kratom should proceed with extreme caution.

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References:

Increases in Kratom-Related Reports to Poison Centers — National Poison Data System, United States, 2015–2025 (2026)

From kratom to 7-hydroxymitragynine: evolution of a natural remedy into a public-health threat (2025)

An exploratory study of the safety profile and neurocognitive function after single doses of mitragynine in humans (2024)

Responses to a “Typical” Morning Dose of Kratom in People Who Use Kratom Regularly: A Direct-Observation Study (2024)

Correlations of Kratom (Mitragyna speciosa Korth.) Use Behavior and Psychiatric Conditions from a cross-sectional survey (2023)

Deadly Dose: Part 1: Hundreds died using kratom in Florida. It was touted as safe. (2023)

Self-reported Health Diagnoses and Demographic Correlates With Kratom Use: Results From an Online Survey (2020)

The Potential for Kratom as an Antidepressant and Antipsychotic (2020)

Mitragynine, bioactive alkaloid of kratom, reduces chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain in rats through α-adrenoceptor mechanism (2020)

Biochemical Benefits, Diagnosis, and Clinical Risks Evaluation of Kratom (2017)

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Psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and author John Kruse, MD, PhD presents practical, actionable, well-researched information about treatment options that scientists and clinicians recommend for adult ADHD and other mental health conditions.

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