Ketamine (Ketalar)

Ketamine (Ketalar) is a licensed anaesthetic that is commonly used in human and veterinary medicine. It is also used in small doses as a painkiller, particularly for pain associated with movement or nerve damage.

Ketamine is also abused recreationally, because of its mild hallucinatory properties. These can include changes in the perception or distances and time and altered thought processes, lasting between 30 minutes and three hours. In higher doses, users can become dissociated, meaning that they become less connected to their sense of self and their surroundings, coupled with difficulty moving: this is sometimes called a ‘k-hole’. Very high doses can cause breathing problems.

Ketamine is not thought to be physically addictive.

Ketamine is not known to have any significant interactions with antiretroviral drugs. However, habitual users may have difficulty adhering to their HIV treatment combinations whilst under the effects of the drug.