Club Drug 'Special K' Linked to Irreversible Kidney Damage

[okarol]

Study: Club Drug 'Special K' Linked to Irreversible Kidney Damage

Monday, December 15, 2008

Ketamine, widely abused as a party drug and sometimes called as "Special K," can cause inflammation and contraction of the bladder leading to possibly irreversible kidney damage, according to a report from Hong Kong.

Ketamine is mostly used as a veterinary anesthetic. In humans, it causes hallucinations and high blood pressure. It became widely abused in some parts of the world by the 1990s, and has since been banned or classified as a controlled substance in several countries.

"Street-ketamine abuse is not only a drug problem but might be associated with a serious urological condition causing a significant burden to healthcare resources," Dr. Peggy Sau-Kwan Chu and colleagues write in the medical journal BJU International.

In their study, Chu, from Tuen Mun Hospital, Hong Kong, China, and others describe problems that developed in 59 ketamine abusers who were seen at Hong Kong hospitals from March 2000 to December 2007.

All of the subjects had moderate to severe lower urinary tract symptoms, such as urgency, frequency, and difficulty urinating.

Visual examination with a cystoscope revealed an inflamed bladder in 42 of these individuals, and biopsies showed that 12 of them had a more serious condition called interstitial cystitis.

On further testing, 47 patients were found to have overactive bladder or decreased bladder elasticity, the team reports.

Damage to one or both kidneys was seen on ultrasound in 30 patients, and four of them had areas of dead kidney tissue.

"Abstinence from ketamine abuse is strongly advocated before any irreversible damage to the urinary tract occurs," Chu and her colleagues emphasize.

People who've used ketamine recreationally should seek early urological assessment, they advise. This may "help to reduce not only the detrimental effects to the abusers, but also the health costs to society."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,467175,00.html

[jessup]

This info needs to be "put out" there for those that use special k.
Special k is certainly used here in the top end but is not as popular as other rec. drugs
 I was not aware of these complications so I assume not many others do either.
I believe it is impt. that "users" of rec. drugs need to know consequences of using so they can make informed decisions about using.

[RightSide]

The well-known risks of alcohol (liver disease), and of cocaine (heart disease, kidney disease) haven't deterred many users of these drugs from continuing to abuse them.

But this info should certainly be disseminated to Emergency Rooms of hospitals and any other health facilities that deal with Special K users.  If patients show up high on Special K, physicians should screen them for renal disease.  Before it's too late and they get ESRD.

BTW, I updated Wikipedia's entry on ketamine to reflect this new health info.

[monrein]

I have worked with teens who do all kinds of street drugs, including Special K.  I used to print out the medical info about drugs in an attempt to inform (and frankly scare) them but "immortality syndrome" ,as I call it, is such a big part of adolescent thinking that they never saw it as remotely applicable to them.  Only when they actually have a personal adverse reaction does anything seem to hit home.

I remember a 16 year old meth/amphetamine addict who also liked to do Special K and Ecstasy.  She was completely unable to sleep normally and even though she was ready to quit everything, that was impossible as long as she remained in her usual environment.  She was trying to quit without getting her parents involved but I eventually convinced her that she needed their help AND a rehab program.

Scary stuff.