Ketamine

Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic developed in the early 1960s and used in human and veterinary medicine. The drug is primarily used for anesthesia.

In the 1950s, phencyclidine (what is PCP) was developed as an intravenous general anesthetic, but because of its severe side effects, ketamine was developed as a dissociative anesthetic to replace it.

Effects of ketamine

The effects of any drug vary from person to person. How ketamine affects a person depends on many things including their size, weight and health, also whether the person is used to taking it and whether other drugs are taken around the same time. The effects of any drug also depend on the amount taken.

Tolerance and dependence

There is evidence that after frequent and prolonged use, ketamine is addictive. People who use ketamine regularly can develop dependence and tolerance to it, which means they need to take larger amounts of ketamine to get the same effect.

Dependence on ketamine can be psychological, physical, or both. People who are dependent on ketamine find that using the drug becomes far more important than other activities in their life. They crave the drug and find it very difficult to stop using it.

People who are psychologically dependent on keta may find they feel an urge to use it when they are in specific surroundings or socialising with friends.

Physical dependence occurs when a person's body adapts to ketamine and gets used to functioning with the ketamine present.

The Risks

Ketamine produces a range of effects, from intoxication to delirium. It can also make you unable to move and feel pain. Since it's an anesthetic, you can easily black out and forget what happened while under the drug's influence.35 When combined with simple activities like driving, this drug can become deadly.

Ketamine users describe a side effect of the drug that is a terrifying experience called a "K-hole" In this state, there's a sense of complete detachment from your body, combined with an inability to move. The result is something that feels like a near-death experience.

LONG-TERM EFFECTS

Using ketamine can cause profound physical and mental problems, including impaired learning ability and memory, amnesia and potentially fatal respiratory problems.