The British Journal of Psychiatry (2006) 189: 173-179. doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.105.015263
© 2006 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
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Psychological effects of ketamine in healthy volunteers

Phenomenological study

E. Pomarol-Clotet, PhD, MD

Benito Menni C.A.S.M., Barcelona, Spain

G. D. Honey, PhD, G. K. Murray, MRCPsych and P. R. Corlett, MA(Cantab)

Department of Psychiatry, Cambridge University School of Medicine

A. R. Absalom, FRCA, MD and M. Lee, FRCA

Department of Anaesthesiology, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge

P. J. McKenna, MRCPsych

Fulbourn Hospital, Cambridge

E. T. Bullmore, MRCPsych, PhD and P. C. Fletcher, MRCPsych, PhD

Department of Psychiatry, Cambridge University School of Medicine, Cambridge, UK

Correspondence: Dr P. J. McKenna, Section of Psychological Medicine, Gartnavel Royal Hospital, 1055 Great Western Road, Glasgow G12 0XH, UK. Email: ppeter.eter.mckenna{at}virgin.net

Declaration of interest None.

Background The psychosis-inducing effect of ketamine is important evidence supporting the glutamate hypothesis of schizophrenia. However, the symptoms the drug produces have not been described systematically.

Aim To examine the effects of ketamine in healthy people using a structured psychiatric interview.

Method Ketamine (200 ng/ml) or placebo was administered by continuous infusion to 15 healthy volunteers. Symptoms were rated using the Present State Examination, the Thought, Language and Communication Scale and the Scale for Assessment of Negative Symptoms.

Results Ketamine induced a range of perceptual distortions, but not hallucinations. Referential ideas were seen in nearly half the sample. There were only mild and infrequent ratings on the thought disorder scale. Affective flattening and alogia were seen in some volunteers.

Conclusions Ketamine does not reproduce the full picture of schizophrenia. The main point of similarity concerns referential thinking. Phenomena resembling negative symptoms are also seen, butthe distinction of these from the drug's sedative effects requires further elucidation.


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