A leading addiction specialist has warned recreational drug users that the party drug ketamine can cause seizures, damage brain function and lead to kidney failure.
Ketamine is a dissociative anaesthetic used medically for induction and maintenance of anaesthesia. It is also used for treatment of depression and pain management.
Dr Garret McGovern told Newstalk Breakfast that the drug has advantages in the medical field where it can be used as an anaesthetic. However, it can cause serious problems for individuals who take it for its euphoria inducing qualities.
"It’s been used for quite a while now by recreational drug users because it has sought-after effects.
In low doses, it causes stimulant-like effects and can also cause psychedelic-like effects.
People can get hallucinations and feel an out-of-body experience which they seem to like. Unfortunately, it does have side effects which is where the big worry is.”
The latest figures recorded by the National Drug Related Deaths Index in Ireland show eight poisoning deaths where ketamine was implicated between 2011 and 2022. However, five of those deaths took place over the two year period from 2020.
The drug hit the headlines recently when it emerged that the Friends actor, Matthew Perry, died from the “acute effects” of the anaesthetic.
Dr McGovern has urged drug users of the dangers of taking ketamine, particularly when they are alone. He says that it can impact on bladder and brain function.
“It can affect cognition and cause seizures. It can also have awful effects on the bladder and sometimes result in renal or kidney failure.
The risk you take on its own is fairly low but it’s been increasingly used with other drugs like cocaine and alcohol.
The whole idea of it was in medicine to make people less aware of pain and stuff like that – their surroundings.”
Dr McGovern said that another area of concern in relation to drug taking is that individuals often have no idea what they are ingesting with when they buy the likes of ketamine from dealers.
“I think people need to understand that they are taking these drugs without knowing what they are getting.
Ketamine is also found as a component in other drugs like MDMA and cocaine too, and I think people need to be very, very aware of what they’re doing.”
Dr McGovern said that “without a shadow of a doubt” use of ketamine is on the rise.
“We’re seeing more of it in treatment circles now when we wouldn’t have seen it at all ten years ago.”
Meanwhile, the HSE National Social Inclusion Office recently told the Irish Journal Of Medical Science that the use of ketamine has become “a prominent feature” of recreational drug use in Ireland.
The HSE says if too much is taken, people can go in a to “K hole,” described as an intense feeling of being disconnected from one’s own body, often affecting the ability to speak or move around easily.
The HSE ‘Safer Nightlife Programme,’ which ran the harm reduction and ‘back of house’ drug checking at festivals in 2022 and 2023 reported ketamine as a ‘significant nightlife trend,’ second to the use of ecstasy pills and powders.
Of the 266 substances that were surrendered to the HSE at the festivals, 117 were MDMA, 40 were ketamine and 34 were cocaine.
