Brain damage in Ketamine addicts as revealed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

[Chip (OP)]

source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3713393/#B47

This study revealed lesions in many regions of the brain of HEAVY Ketamine addicts.

Neuroimaging Equipment and Protocol

MRI was performed with a 3.0-Tesla imager (Achieva; Philips Medical Systems, Best, the Netherlands). The images were obtained with 5.0 mm section thickness (ST). The field of view (FOV) was 23 × 18 cm2 with 8 channel SENSE head coil. T1-weighted images were obtained with 2000 ms repetition time (TR) and 20 ms echo time (TE). T2-weighted images were obtained with TR and TE at 3000 ms and 20 ms and fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) images were obtained at 11,000 ms TR and 20 ms TE. The total acquisition time for the sequences was about 30 min

Abstract

Ketamine, a known antagonist of N-methyl-D-aspartic (NMDA) glutamate receptors, had been used as an anesthetic particularly for pediatric or for cardiac patients. Unfortunately, ketamine has become an abusive drug in many parts of the world while chronic and prolonged usage led to damages of many organs including the brain. However, no studies on possible damages in the brains induced by chronic ketamine abuse have been documented in the human via neuroimaging. This paper described for the first time via employing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) the changes in ketamine addicts of 0.5–12 years and illustrated the possible brain regions susceptible to ketamine abuse. Twenty-one ketamine addicts were recruited and the results showed that the lesions in the brains of ketamine addicts were located in many regions which appeared 2–4 years after ketamine addiction. Cortical atrophy was usually evident in the frontal, parietal or occipital cortices of addicts. Such study confirmed that many brain regions in the human were susceptible to chronic ketamine injury and presented a diffuse effect of ketamine on the brain which might differ from other central nervous system (CNS) drugs, such as cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine

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take the source link for more data, images etc.

[Tainted]

This worries me. A huge amount of my friends are HEAVY into K, like they do 3-5 gram rails (when keys are around its easy to get out of control with K.) At my worst I was doing a half ounce a week for about a year. K is a shitty drug to get addicted to. K pains are about the worst thing I've ever seen someone go thru. Never had them myself, but I've had friends get K pains and all you can do is shoot them up with heroin so their unconscious and not screaming in agony. If you goto the hospital and tell them you have K pains they immediately send you home they won't do shit for you. As far as I know, they don't even know what causes K pains. going a little off topic here.

Hopefully K will be studied much more now that it's reached FDA approval. I had a friend get K pains and went into the hospital and didn't tell them about the K. The best diagnosis they could give is she had sludge in her gallbladder and they didn't know why.

edit: should also be noted, most of the K in my region is imported  in NYC thru the triads, and comes in crystal form, it isn't pharmacetuical liquid K. so it could be 2-f K, or god knows what else. I have mandellin kits, but they are shit for IDing K. they can't even tell the difference between K and weird PCP analogues

[neighborboy]

damn scary... def not in that category with very limited access less then a gram at a time but still, i know if i ever stumbled on a connect for keys at a time id be in trouble.
 i guess anything can be abused, horrible trap with ket and analogs for it how fast tolerance goes up.

 although reading thru it, def have memory problems mostly was 'using' mxe and never more then a gram at a time but still few months there it was more, like 2 grams.and def in that 4 year range that they mentioned. scary shit, the ataxia stuff was what originally got me worried about it, even just binging for 5-7 days, nothing for a month, a few times would feel like i was about to just tip over, idk am kinda hypochondriac so sure that doesn't help... not called 'research chemicals' for nothing.