Using "Special K," or ketamine, can seriously damage the bladder.
New research reveals that ketamine pokes holes in the bladder and causes urine to seep into other parts of the body. Researchers noted that urine seeping into other bodily tissues causes inflammation and sometimes extreme pain.
After looking at one case on which a patient had to undergo cystectomy or bladder removal because they were in so much pain, researchers led by lead researcher Dr. Simon Baker of the University of York found that epithelial cells lining the bladder died after coming into contact with urinary ketamine.
To understand how ketamine damaged the bladder, Baker and his team had examined the epithelial cells lining the bladder as well as the urachus, an adjacent remnant of the fetal urinary tract that doesn't come in contact with urine. They found almost all the epithelial cells lining the bladder were absent, but the epithelial cells from the urachus appeared healthy. Researchers said the findings suggest that ketamine damages the body through direct contact with urine - and not through systemic factors.
"This study supports the hypothesis that urinary (and not systemic) factors are the main driver of urothelial ulceration in ketamine-induced cystitis. The most likely excreted factors responsible are ketamine and potentially its metabolites. This study reinforces the importance of complete cessation of ketamine use in patients with ketamine-induced cystitis," the researchers wrote in the study.
Baker also conducted another study to look at how ketamine affects epithelium cells taken from healthy patients. They found that ketamine causes cells to suicide or apoptosis by invading their mitochondria. Baker and his team found that ketamine triggers the release of toxins by flooding the cell's mitochondria. Cells then undergo apoptosis in an attempt to protect remaining tissue.
"These two studies combine to demonstrate that direct contact with urinary ketamine causes significant bladder damage, and shows how this drug causes the death of previously healthy bladder cells," said Baker, a senior postdoctoral research fellow in York's Jack Birch Unit for Molecular Carcinogenesis, according to a university release.
"We now have a more detailed understanding of how and why chronic ketamine abuse results in bladder problems and cystitis. Understanding the full side-effects of ketamine is very important as other researchers are currently investigating the potential for this drug to spawn a new generation of anti-depressants," he added.
The findings are published in the Urology Journal and The American Journal of Pathology.
