Ketamine

Ketamine has a wide range of effects in humans, such as; analgesia, anaesthesia, hallucinations, elevated blood pressure, and bronchodilation.

Ketamine is primarily used medically for the induction and maintenance of general anaesthesia, usually in combination with a sedative. Other uses include sedation in intensive care, analgesia (particularly in emergency medicine), and treatment of bronchospasm. It has been shown to be effective in treating depression in patients with bipolar disorder who have not responded to other anti-depressants.

In persons with major depressive disorder it produces a rapid antidepressant effect, acting within two hours as opposed to the several weeks taken by typical antidepressants to work.

There is some evidence that chronic use of the drug is linked with severe bladder problems. The drug has been used medically for decades and has slowly risen in popularity as a recreational stimulant.

Frequent use of ketamine has revealed it may be linked to Incontinence, Bladder shrinkage and damage to the Kidneys and Ureter leading to extreme pain.

The drug has shown some promise as a treatment for depression and that mouse models of depression ketamine promoted the rapid synthesis of a protein known to have antidepressant effects. This may lead to ketamine becoming the basis for a new generation of drugs.

Some people with diseases problems such as multiple sclerosis experience bladder problems as well as experiencing depression; therefore attention must be paid when developing a drug such as ketamine that its possible use to treat depression may exacerbate the bladder problems a multiple sclerosis sufferer may have.

Peck TE, Hill SA, Williams M (2008). Pharmacology for anaesthesia and intensive care (3rd edition). Cambridge: Cambridge university press. p. 111.

Nancy Diazgranados et al (August 2010). "A Randomized Add-on Trial of an N-methyl-d-aspartate Antagonist in Treatment-Resistant Bipolar Depression". Archives of General Psychiatry 67 (8): 793–802. doi:10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2010.90.

BJU International DOI: 10,1111/j.1464-410X.2010.