• Problems
• How We Help
• Treatment
• Fast Help
• Family Intervention
• Secondary Care
• Accommodation
• Rehab Costs

Risks of Taking Ketamine

Ketamine is a powerful anaesthetic with painkilling and hallucinogenic qualities most commonly used by vets for operating on animals. It depresses the nervous system and produces a short-term loss of sensation throughout the body. The legal form of ketamine comes as a liquid and is normally injected. It can be bought illegally as a tablet or more commonly, in powder form, which can then be snorted.

Ketamine is similar in many ways to LSD. It too has hallucinogenic characteristics, distorting the user’s sense of reality. A person’s mood and environment at the time of taking the drug will often have an influence on the effects, just as it does with LSD. It can cause an ‘out of body experience’; the user feeling as though their mind and body are detached. Ketamine is also an analgesic, and causes the body to become numb.

The drug is psychologically but not physically addictive. Users don’t suffer withdrawal symptoms but can develop an increased desire to continue taking the drug. A user can also become tolerant to the drug, resulting in them taking larger amounts in order to achieve the same effects.

There are many health risks associated with taking ketamine. The drug can cause temporary paralysis which often leaves the user unable to move, and because someone on ketamine doesn’t feel any pain, they run the risk of badly injuring themselves without even realising they have done it. If taking the drug, there is know way of knowing what might be considered a safe dose. It can depend on the purity of the powder/liquid, and even then, how someone will react to it depends on the individual. Ketamine is particularly dangerous if mixed with alcohol or other drugs, while large doses can cause breathing problems, heart failure and unconsciousness. This can, in extreme cases, lead to death: one common cause being the inhalation of vomit once unconscious.

It is not yet certain what the long-term effects of prolonged ketamine use might be. Depression and an exacerbation of existing mental health problems are thought to be just two of the possible consequences.