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Ketamine is a dissociative anaesthetic that was developed in the 1960s and is used legitimately in medical settings. However, over the last decade, it has become a popular club drug, with 264,000 adults reporting using it last year.
Supervised medical use of ketamine is normal and becoming more common in mental health treatment, but illegal use brings many issues. This is because long-term side effects of ketamine are real possibilities if you engage in prolonged or high-dose non-medical use, which can end up leaving you with lifelong health problems.
It’s important to know about the dangers of ketamine, how it can affect your body and what help you can get to overcome your addiction.
What Is Ketamine?
Ketamine is used medically as an anaesthetic for humans and animals and has become more commonly used for treatment-resistant depression.
It produces dissociative effects, meaning it can reduce sensations in your body, stopping you from feeling pain and altering your perception of time and place. People who take it can feel detached from their body and in a dream-like state.
With rising concerns about use in the UK, there was a major review completed by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), looking at its classification. After the review, the ACMD decided that ketamine remained a Class B controlled drug in the UK.
How Does Long-Term Ketamine Use Affect the Bladder?
Using ketamine frequently can result in damage to your bladder known as ketamine-induced uropathy or ketamine bladder syndrome.
Ketamine-induced uropathy occurs because when the body breaks down the drug, the metabolites that are being passed through urine and out of your body are toxic, irritating and inflaming the bladder lining. As this happens more and more, it causes scarring, stopping the bladder from being flexible and reducing bladder capacity.
The damage can extend upwards to your upper urinary tract and into your liver.
Symptoms of ketamine bladder syndrome include:
- urinary urgency
- Increased frequency of need to urinate
- Pain when urinating
- Incontinence
- Blood in the urine
If you notice symptoms, seek out medical attention. Ketamine bladder syndrome is a serious health issue that can affect users, with severe cases needing complex treatment or surgery. Sometimes, the damage done to the bladder can be too great, and it cannot be reversed.
Effects on the Kidneys and Urinary Tract
As stated above, severe bladder dysfunction can spread upwards, placing pressure on the upper urinary tract and kidneys. Urine can back up the urinary tract, going into the kidneys and leading to kidney failure.
Common symptoms include:
- Flank pain
- Urinary changes (needing to urinate more often, unable to hold it, urgency)
- Pain when urinating
- Constant pain in lower abdomen
These symptoms may be caused by other health issues, so it’s important to get a medical assessment rather than making your own diagnosis.
Abdominal Pain and “K-Cramps”
A common side effect of prolonged ketamine use is experiencing severe abdominal pain that is known as “k-cramps”.
Alongside this severe pain, people often experience nausea and vomiting, along with pain when urinating. Ketamine related abdominal symptoms can have several causes, but when it comes to k-cramps, it is thought that it is related to what the substance does to your liver and bile ducts.
If you are experiencing severe or persistent pain, please seek urgent assessment.
Liver and Bile Duct Damage
The liver is responsible for breaking down ketamine, exposing the cells to the drug and toxic byproducts. Bile ducts carry fluid from the liver, so as the toxic cells attack and inflame the liver and bile ducts, this causes scarring.
Liver function is reduced, with ketamine staying in the system for longer, causing more damage. Eventually, the bile ducts widen due to the damage and scarring, causing bile to back up into the liver.
Symptoms of liver and bile damage include:
- Upper abdominal pain
- Jaundice
- Dark urine
- Pale stools
You shouldn’t see an absence of symptoms as an absence of a problem. Early damage may improve after you stop using ketamine, while continuing to do so may cause the damage to be irreversible.
Memory and Cognitive Effects
Another organ that ketamine can affect is your brain.
Ketamine can impair brain function, resulting in effects on your attention, memory, learning and decision-making. You are at greater risk of developing these effects if you engage in chronic, frequent or high-dose ketamine use.
Though ending your ketamine use is a must to stop the problem from getting worse, currently there is limited evidence that cognitive damage can be reversed. Some studies, though, point towards improvement when ketamine use is stopped, so permanent damage is not a foregone conclusion.
Long-Term Mental Health Effects
Long-term use of ketamine will impact you mentally as well.
People suffering from addiction often deal with anxiety and depression, and ketamine can trigger depressive episodes or heighten anxiety. It can cause emotional instability as you experience the effects of the drug, suffering from severe lows between doses or feeling emotionally disconnected.
This frequent dissociation and altering of your perception may affect your well-being, leaving you feeling disconnected from reality and other people, leading you to use ketamine more.
As dependence grows, you’ll likely withdraw from others, feeling ashamed and wanting to hide your drug use, isolating yourself more. Social isolation can increase feelings of depression and anxiety, worsening mental health issues that you thought ketamine was helping.
If you believe you are suffering from mental health conditions alongside ketamine addiction, please reach out to professionals for an assessment so you can get the help you need.
Tolerance, Dependence and Addiction
Addiction to ketamine doesn’t happen overnight.
When you begin to use ketamine more regularly, your body adapts to its presence. Eventually, you develop a tolerance for ketamine, needing more to feel the same effects as before.
As you use ketamine more frequently or in larger amounts, you become dependent on it. If you stop, you’ll likely go through withdrawal, experiencing symptoms such as low mood, anxiety, restlessness and cravings.
After dependence, you can develop an addiction. This is when your ketamine use becomes entrenched; you suffer from cravings and lose all control over your drug use, continuing to engage in the addictive behaviour despite all the problems it is causing.
If you are in the middle of this situation, it can feel hopeless. It’s important to know that addiction is treatable, and going to a ketamine rehab can help you overcome your substance misuse.
Effects on Daily Life
Ketamine will not only affect your physical health, but it can also impact your life on a daily basis.
As it takes over your life, the effects of ketamine can impact your education as your memory is affected or your attention is elsewhere. It may cost you your employment and ruin your finances as you spend more time and money acquiring ketamine and become unreliable, with ketamine dominating your daily routines.
Ketamine addiction can also impact relationships as you turn into someone else, lose the trust of those around you and become more secretive and deceptive.
As ketamine use causes impaired coordination or reduced awareness of pain, you’re more susceptible to accidents and injuries that could alter your life forever.
When to Seek Urgent Medical Help
Though ketamine use can always be dangerous, there are some instances when you should not wait to get help.
You should seek urgent medical attention if you find blood in your urine, are unable to urinate, and are suffering from severe abdominal pain or jaundice. You can experience these symptoms even if you are not taking ketamine at that moment, suggesting more ingrained health issues.
Overdose and immediate danger are possible as well, and someone should call 999 if you have:
- Chest pain
- Seizures
- Breathing difficulty
- Severe confusion
- Loss of consciousness
For long-term side effects, consider seeing your GP earlier, before symptoms become severe and more likely to be irreversible.
Treatment for Long-Term Ketamine Use
If your ketamine use has become compulsive and long-lasting, treatment may require addiction, urology and mental health professionals to help you overcome your issues.
You’ll likely go through a clinical assessment to determine the best path forward. Afterwards, you’ll go through a detox to end your physical dependence on ketamine. Then, you’ll spend the bulk of your time participating in a range of psychological therapies and relapse-prevention work to help you understand your addiction and learn healthier coping mechanisms.
When it comes to ketamine abuse, physical consequences are a possibility. Dealing with these physical complications alongside the addiction is vital to get the best outcome, as the damage done can be halted and, in some instances, reversed.
If you are concerned about ketamine addiction, Rehab Clinics Group offers ketamine rehabilitation programmes and aftercare that provide a strong platform and continuing support to help you effectively overcome your substance abuse issues.
Concerned About Your Ketamine Use? Get Help Today
Long-term side effects of ketamine can be debilitating and irreversible. If you are experiencing urinary, abdominal or psychological symptoms, then you should seek medical help now.
Early intervention can have a huge effect on the outcome, giving your body the chance to recover well. If you are struggling to stop your ketamine use and need support, contact Rehab Clinics Group today for confidential advice about your next steps.
