Side effects of Ketamine

Ketamine use is on the rise across the country. Young adults often see ketamine as a “party drug,” taken innocuously on a night out. A UK Government survey shows that from 2021 to 2022, the number of young people reporting problems with ketamine increased by more than 1%.

The survey also shows that while this number is rising, the overall percentage of people in treatment for substance misuse is decreasing. This blog aims to outline the side effects of ketamine and provide advice for all people to manage its myriad dangers.

What is ketamine?

Ketamine is a dissociative anaesthetic with hallucinogenic effects. It’s a synthetic drug that can be swallowed, snorted or injected. Historically, it has been used by medical practitioners and veterinarians for sedation. It is used illegally by people for its euphoric effects and as a way to get high.

In the UK, ketamine is placed in the Class C category of the Drugs Misuse Act. Sold on the street, it usually has a white or off-white appearance. You might also see it in compressed pill form or dissolved into a liquid to be injected.

It is sold illegally under street names that include:

• Special K
• K
• Ket
• Kitkat
• Ketters
• Super K
• Horse trank

What are the primary effects of ketamine?

In medical terms, a drug’s primary effects are the intended, predicted and desired results that come from taking it. In basic terms, it is the primary reason a drug is taken. Ketamine has long been used as an anaesthetic drug that creates a disassociation and a “detachment from pain”.

Ketamine’s primary effect is a short-lived anaesthetic for humans and animals. It is powerful and fast-acting, which means it’s useful in the medical field. It is used with heightened medical supervision from the professionals who administer it.

What are the secondary and side effects of ketamine?

Ketamine’s secondary effects contribute to its significance as a “club drug,” often taken while under the influence of alcohol or other drugs. Outlined here are secondary and adverse effects that can be unexpected and undesired.

Short-term secondary effects

The ways ketamine affects you are usually felt within minutes. These short-term effects vary in severity, depending on the amount of ketamine taken. They might persist over several days, but the most common short-term effects include:

• Dizziness, nausea and vomiting.
• Visual and auditory disturbance, up to hallucinations.
• Raised blood pressure, heart rate, breathing rate and body temperature.
• A feeling of detachment from the people and place around you.
• Further detachment, leading to a profound and disassociating “K-hole”

After taking it, you might quickly feel detached and chilled, or anxious and confused. Short-term effects are often unpredictable, and one person’s recreational night using ketamine can be another person’s “bad trip” that disturbs them to their core.

The pleasurable short-term effects of ketamine can make a user want to return to using it again. Much like alcohol, using ketamine affects the brain’s natural ability to generate a reward system, so short to mid-term secondary effects can affect your mood and emotions.

Long-term side effects and dangers of ketamine use

To get into the dangerous side effects of ketamine, long-term undesired effects that come from ketamine abuse should be considered. These effects can include:

• Memory problems and difficulty concentrating
• Ketamine addiction
• Increased tolerance to ketamine and psychological dependence
• Anxiety and depression
• Damaged kidneys and bladder
• Ketamine withdrawal

Ketamine is classed by some researchers as having “low to moderate” potential to form an addiction. Physically, depending on ketamine is less likely than substances like alcohol and opioids, but ketamine addiction can happen if you repeatedly turn to the drug for its euphoric effects.

Physical dependence on ketamine means your body adapts to the ketamine withdrawal itself. Psychological dependence involves the cravings that happen, the “reasoning” conversation in your mind that convinces you to take it. Signs of ketamine addiction, both physical and psychological, can appear after using the drug for a sustained period.

Both forms are painful and pave a slippery path toward ketamine addiction. The effects of ketamine addiction should serve as warning signs that stopping now is the right action to take.

Safety tips to make ketamine use safer

Ketamine’s powerful euphoric sensation means that it was always administered with extreme care and caution in a medical setting. As a club drug, medical supervision often goes out of the window, meaning its power often pierces through the defences of people who take it. You might take it while in high spirits on a night out and enter a phenomenological event called a “K-hole.”

Ketamine’s unique “K-hole” is usually highly disturbing to a first-time user. Is sometimes likened to an out-of-body experience or an event of spiritual significance. Recreational use of ketamine leading to a K-hole experience often disturbs and scares a person into never wanting to return to it. If this happens to you, be sure to be in a safe setting.

As a club drug, ketamine is frequently taken in conjunction with alcohol. Mixing it in high volumes with other depressants like alcohol while on a night out can even lead to death. As a precaution, making sure you’re around people with your best interest at heart is a valuable choice if you take it on a night out.

I want all the effects of ketamine out of my life

Ketamine’s effects are potent and can be disturbing on many levels. If you or a loved one are affected by ketamine, it can become a matter of life or death, so recognise that help is available.

Here at UKAT, we pride ourselves on helping people escape the barbed wire of addiction and tread the path of recovery. We have comprehensive programmes that provide detox from ketamine with scientific care and expertise. Our ketamine detox programme could be the key you need to open the door to recovery. Get in touch with us now.