"[I]f we’re out until 3 or 4 a.m., and we’ve got to be up at 6:30, I take this, I feel I can go about my day"

The Cedarhouse in Los Angeles features a “shot bar” and public intravenous lounge, for immunity boosting. At the Drip Room in Scottsdale, Ariz., clients can get an energy drip with vitamins B12, B5 and B6; a weight-loss drip, which includes three fat burners and L-carnitine “to help use stored fat and build lean muscle”; and an anti-aging drip with vitamin C, biotin, CoQ10 and glutathione “to plump and smooth your skin,” according to the website. Prices are $99 for members and $149 for nonmembers.

The medical community is not especially impressed. “There’s no scientific support that these treatments do anything,” said Lewis S. Nelson, a toxicologist at NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan. He believes the placebo effect is at work.

“It’s basically just hydrating people,” said David E. Bank, a dermatologist and the founder and director of the Center for Dermatology, Cosmetic & Laser Surgery in Mount Kisco, N.Y. “They infuse a one-liter bag of normal saline — for $200. A bag of normal saline costs $4. It’s saltwater.”