Meet Casey Brachvogel, CRNA, PMHNP-BC

and

Mia Wallace, dog,

Chief Anti-anxiety Officer

About Casey

Founder & Lead Clinician — OffBenzos.com | New England Ketamine | Six States ADHD

“Benzodiazepine dependence is a medical issue, not a moral failing. My mission is to guide each patient through a science-backed taper so they can reclaim clarity, calm, and control.”

After eight years at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, mastering the art of safely putting people to sleep in the operating room, Casey Brachvogel, CRNA, felt called to do the opposite: help patients wake up. He does that safely, too. He left the hospital setting in 2019 and founded New England Ketamine, a cutting-edge clinic devoted to individuals battling treatment-resistant chronic pain and complex mental health conditions.

Working closely with the medication-resistant mental health population for years revealed how long-term medications were often worsening, not relieving, their symptoms.

Determined to close that care gap, Casey earned a post-master’s degree and became a board-certified Psychiatric–Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP-BC).

He unites anesthesia-level pharmacology expertise with evidence-based psychiatric care to create safer, more holistic solutions for his patients.

Why Casey Started OffBenzos.com

• Clinical Reality: Up to 30 % of Casey’s patients seeking ketamine therapy for mental health issues were unknowingly experiencing psychotropic drug withdrawal. The most severe cases were long-term benzodiazepine users, who were often too mentally unwell to receive ketamine. As ketamine is the end of the line for most mental health patients, Casey struggled turning patients away, instead of being able to help.

• Gap in Care: Prescribers frequently missed withdrawal signs and misinterpreted signs of medication withdrawal as signs of a worsening mental health condition. Seeing patients’ withdrawal symptoms and adverse effects of their medications escape detection for decades in some patients, he felt compelled to act.

• Solution: Combine anesthesia-level pharmacology expertise with psychiatric prescribing to design personalized, slow-taper protocols that prioritize neurochemical healing and quality of life.