Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) reportedly shelled out around $19,000 in campaign cash for services from a psychiatrist known for ketamine therapy.
According to a report from the New York Post, AOC “hired Boston-based Dr. Brian Boyle, the chief psychiatric officer at Stella, a chain of mental health clinics focusing on ‘novel’ therapies popular with Hollywood and Wall Street.”
The Post, which cites federal election records, reported that the socialist diva’s campaign “paid Boyle $11,550 in March 2025, another $2,800 in May, and $4,375 in October for a total of $18,725” with the expenses identified as “leadership training and consulting.”
The Harvard-trained Boyle describes himself as an “interventional psychiatrist” whose specialties include using “unorthodox methods for treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, and anxiety,” according to the paper.
AOC spent $19,000 in campaign cash on a PSYCHIATRIST.
The socialist politican visted a psychiatrist who specializes in controversial ketamine therapy and marked the expenses as ‘leadership training and consulting.’
Dr Brian Boyle describes himself as an “interventional… pic.twitter.com/BlqQL387wJ
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) March 22, 2026
“I just saw the incredible power of what these treatments could do,” the doc said during a podcast last year. “It’s a ton of fun helping patients get better.
Boyle is a “leading authority” on the controversial drug, which, in addition to being a “horse tranquilizer,” is used to treat mental disorders in humans, including depression and narcissistic personality disorder. The potent drug was given to actor Matthew Perry in the month before the “Friends” star’s death in 2023.
According to the Post, “Boyle’s clinic also offers other treatments popular with the 1 Percent, like stellate ganglion block, an anesthetic injected into a nerve cluster in the neck to calm the body’s fight-or-flight response. Billionaires like Bob Parsons, who’s battled PTSD since returning from the Vietnam War, have raved about the treatment.”
“Celebrities tend to be more inclined to be on the hunt for highly effective solutions across beauty, health, mental health, nutrition, and so on,” the doctor said in an interview last year.
Ocasio-Cortez has been a staunch advocate of the use of psychedelic drugs for treatment, having campaigned to legalize pot and pushing legislation to make it easier to study the benefits of hallucinogenic substances, including psilocybin, commonly known as magic mushrooms.
“There are certain schedule-1 drugs that are shown to offer a normal amount of promise to veterans and people with PTSD and also people struggling with depression and opioid addiction,” she said at a 2019 town hall.
After taking office, AOC introduced an amendment to allow the federal government to use taxpayer money for the study of the potential medical use of psilocybin and other drugs for the treatment of mental illness, citing the “promising” results of early research.
From the opioid crisis to psilocybin’s potential w/ PTSD, it’s well past time we take drug use out of criminal consideration + into medical consideration.
That begins with research. I’m proud to introduce an amendment that helps scientists do their jobs. https://t.co/V1BziVeNtr
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 8, 2019
“From the opioid crisis to psilocybin’s potential w/ PTSD, it’s well past time we take drug use out of criminal consideration + into medical consideration,” she posted at the time.
The yappy congresswoman has previously acknowledged that she has undergone therapy.
“Oh yeah, I’m doing therapy,” AOC told Latino USA, a public radio show, in 2021, referring to her allegedly being traumatized during the so-called January 6, 2021, “insurrection” at the U.S. Capitol, which she called “an extraordinarily traumatizing event.” Ocasio-Cortez hid in a bathroom during the chaos.
“While I can understand why AOC would spend $18,000 for a shrink whose specialties include narcissistic personality disorders, using her campaign contributions for what appears to be an expense for personal use violates federal campaign finance laws,” National Legal and Policy Center counsel Paul Kamenar told the Post.
“While she describes these expenses as ‘leadership training,’ Dr. Boyle has no expertise in that area, unlike several Democratic campaign consultants,” he added. “This looks like yet another example of misuse of campaign contributions.”
According to a DEA fact sheet, “Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic that has some hallucinogenic effects. It distorts perceptions of sight and sound and makes the user feel disconnected and not in control. It is an injectable, short-acting anesthetic for use in humans and animals. It is referred to as a ‘dissociative anesthetic’ because it makes patients feel detached from their pain and environment.”
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