What is Ketamine, what are the side effects and can the drug help battle depression?
Party drug Special K could have some positive benefits for those battling mental illness
KETAMINE can have powerful beneficial effects on severely depressed patients, British experts claim.
But how could this party drug help people suffering mental illness? Here's the lowdown...
What is Ketamine?
Although Ketamine is synonymous with illegal drug taking, it’s already a licensed medicine used as an aneasthetic.
It puts the patient in a trance like state so they can’t feel pain while also acting as a sedative.
It was discovered in 1962 and was used in casualty clearing stations in the Vietnam war as an anesthetic.
But its mind-altering effects has made it a popular party drug and the hallucinatory experience is commonly known as being K-holed.
It was not until the late 1980s and the arrival of rave culture that it really took off as a recreational drug.
It can be used as a date rape drug due to it being odourless and colourless.
What are the side effects?
The drug can lead to a high and hallucinations that lasts for about an hour.
Side effects can include:
- Disorientation and confusion
- Drowsiness
- Elevated blood pressure
- Increased heart rate
- Overuse can cause damage to the user's bladder and liver
- If a high dose is taken and mixed with other drugs, the drug can cause death
What happened to Katie Hopkins?
Katie Hopkins appears to have collapsed after taking ketamine in South Africa.
The former Apprentice candidate, 42, shared an image of her on the floor surrounded by medical professionals on her Twitter account.
"Grateful thanks to the South African emergency services for putting me back together," she wrote alongside the picture.
"Leaving it all on the road, to tell the truths not being told. Ketamine 1 / Hopkins 0."
Sun Online has attempted to contact Hopkins to find out what happened and why she was taking the drug.
What drug class is it?
Ketamine is a Class B drug in the UK.
This means it is illegal to take, give away or sell.
Anyone caught with the drug faces up to five years behind bars.
How could the drug be used to treat depression?
Ketamine could help Brits with really bad depression that is not responding to other medicine or therapy, experts claim.
They said the tranquilliser, known as Special K by clubbers, may be an effective treatment for tens of thousands who fail to respond to anti-depressants.
In a study published in the Lancet Psychiatry journal, specialists from Oxford University said there is an urgent need for ethical and innovative action by doctors to prescribe the drug under controlled conditions.
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"We think patients' treatment should be in specialist centers and formally tracked in national or international registries," said Rupert McShane, a consultant psychiatrist and researcher at Oxford who has led a series of ketamine studies.
Several research teams around the world have been trialling ketamine use in chronic and recurring depression.
"I have seen Ketamine work where nothing has helped before," McShane said at a briefing in London.
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