Ketamine Intoxication Abuse and Dependence

Ketamine Intoxication Any drug when taken for non-medical purposes then it is termed abused. Today there are very many drugs that are being used for sheer feeling of euphoria the users derive from them. These drugs are common in streets needless to mention some of the drugs that are used in hospitals for medicinal purposes have also been abused greatly. When a particular drug is used for quite a long time for non-medical purpose it becomes very toxic to the body. Substance abuse is a vice that needs to be fought at all costs and from all fronts as it has opened avenues through which lives have been lost. The problems that a person can suffer from long-term drug abuse spring from all the dimensions of a person’s health be it psychological health, mental health, physical health as well as his social relations. A person who is a victim to drug abuse may fail to cater for family needs, school obligations and even fail to have peace within him as he will be having lots of personal and interpersonal conflicts. Drug and substance dependence is commonly known as addiction. Drug or substance dependence is characterized by change in behaviors of a person. Most common behavior being the need to use more quantities of the substance. When a person is dependent on a given substance his life begins to revolve around it and it seems rather hard for him to live without using the substance. The person often suffers such symptoms as withdrawal among other symptoms associated with drug abuse and dependence.

Drug abuse and dependence are dangerous for an individual; however when a person has just began using a particular substance he may be easily helped to quit the habit than when he has used it for so long that he has become dependent on the drug and has begun showing those side effects that are associated with drug dependence. It is also good to note that a person may become dependent on a drug without abusing it. It is also good to note that person may abuse substance for quite a long time without ‘graduating’ to drug dependence.

One of the drugs that are being abused today is the Ketamine. Ketamine is one of the drugs that are very useful in hospitals. It is a perfect example that even some drugs that help us in gaining good health can also be abused. Ketamine is a medication that has been used to treat many illnesses. It is used in medical procedures with humans and other animals and that means it is an accepted medication in hospitals hence can be easily accessed by medical practitioners such as nurses and doctors. In hospitals it is mainly for starting and maintaining general anesthesia especially in scenarios where the patient is to go through intense pain. It also has other uses and these include sedation in intensive care, as a pain killer. It is however commonly used as a painkiller in emergency cases when the patient is allergic to other known drugs used in suppressing pain such as opiate drugs. This drug can be used as treatment of bronchospasm, and as a treatment for complex regional pain syndrome.

Ketamine has been found to work better since its administration does not affect the Respiratory function. For this reason it has become a very valuable anesthetic. However one of the known side effects often associated with administration of ketamine is agitation.

Ketamine is a NMDA noncompetitive Receptor antagonist

Ketamine is an arylcyclohexylamine derivative of phencyclidine. It is also a non-competitive NMDA antagonist. Scientist, Lodge and his colleagues the first showed that ketamine, phencyclidine, related arylcyclohexylamines and congeners were antagonists of excitatory amino acids like aspartate and glutamate in 1983. The early history of the development of ketamine as an anesthetic agent was documented by McCarthy in 1981. Other scientists Corssen and Dundee reviewed the historical introduction of ketamine into human anesthesia and the term dissociative anesthesia in 1990. These scientists found that for ketamine to be used safely in clinical therapies, it had to be tamed.

Low doses of ketamine in humans do not necessarily alter perception in a negative way. Foster gave an IV infusion of three different sub anesthetic doses of ketamine (0.05, 0.1 and 0.2 mg/kg/h) to six patients with Alzheimer’s disease. The patients showed no drowsiness and their reaction times and digit span were unaffected by any of the doses of ketamine used. This study however is rather controversial. This is because NMDA receptors are involved in brain function, including arousal and memory, this study requires further research and explanation because one would have predicted exactly the opposite effects even with the small doses of ketamine used.

Ketamine Intoxication

Ketamine as nicotinic inhibitor

Initially the effect of ketamine blockade on niconitic receptors was unknown. But today after many researches and experiments scientists have shown that racemic ketamine and the isomers inhibits nAChRs and K channels in a concentration-dependent and reversible manner. In an experiment racemic ketamine inhibited nAChRs and K channels, with the anesthetic concentration inducing the half-maximal effect being 1.4 and 300 micrometer, respectively. Only inhibition of the nAChRs was stereo selective. The half-maximal concentrations were 0.8 and 3.6 micrometer for S (+) – and R (-)-ketamine. The K channels were 350 and 70 times less sensitive to the effects of S (+) – and R (-)-ketamine.

Ketamine at concentrations found during clinical anesthesia exerts stereospecific effects on human ganglionic nAChRs but not on voltage-dependent K channels. The results found from this experiment supports the view that ketamine impairs sympathetic ganglionic transmission. Nonspecific effects on voltage-dependent K channels may underlie psychomimetic side effects.

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