Treatment For Ketamine Addiction

by erin on December 20, 2011

Ketamine is mainly used as a general or topical anesthetic in people and animals. Ketamine treatment has also been demonstrated to relieve pain in people suffering from Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, also known as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). It has shown promise in the treatment of addiction and depression. It is also a popular recreational drug, known as ‘K’, ‘Special K’, ‘Pony Dust’, ‘Ket’, ‘Vitamin K’ and other similar nicknames.

Penalties For Possession

In terms of its legal status, it is a Class C drug meaning that it carries lenient penalties for personal possession but it attracts a custodial sentence when found in possession for onward distribution. A few years ago, most of the drug used recreationally came from Mexico. Today, they come mostly from India.

Helpful Uses

The principle use of the drug is as an anesthetic, either general or topical. It does not suppress breathing to the same extent as other anesthetic drugs so it is useful in people with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and in children. In emergency medicine, it is used in patients on the battlefield, those suffering from trauma who are trapped in rubble or in automobile wreckage and in instances where it is impossible to accurately determine the patient’s fluid status such as at the scene of an accident.

CRPS/RSD

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome is a progressive chronic pain condition. It has motor, dystrophic, autonomic and sensory components. The term, ‘dystrophy’ means muscle degeneration. The pain is constant and gets worse with the passage of time. It is often accompanied by swelling and redness of the skin. It may start in a leg or an arm and spread to other regions of the body.

Treatment Techniques

There are two different treatment modalities for the use of ‘K’ in CRPS/RSD. The ‘awake’ method involves delivering low dose as slow infusion over a few days, either in an inpatient or in an outpatient facility. With the other technique, patients are placed into a medically-controlled coma and given a large, single dose of drug. This approach has not yet been approved for use in the United States but is widely used in Germany and is practiced in Mexico.

Studies

Ketamine was originally shown to improve depressive symptoms in patients using it for CRPS/RDS. Since depression was not an outcome measure for that study, these results were not formally documented. In later studies, it was found very useful in depressed patients who had been refractory to other forms of treatment.

Successful Uses

Russian physicians have reported positive results when they have used ketamine to treat alcoholism and heroin addiction. When the drug was used in combination with psychotherapy, 70% of men were abstinent from alcohol one year later. Similar results have been reported in heroin users.

Effects

The main use for ketamine treatment is as an anesthetic. It has also been shown to be useful in managing chronic pain conditions like CRPS/RSD, addiction and depression. Recreational users often report hallucinations and feelings of depression. It is important to note that when dealing with a ketamine addiction, drug counseling is one of the main components of recovery.The principal source for illicit, Class C drugs is India.

Comments on this entry are closed.

Previous post:

Next post: