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Naloxone does not reverse ketamine overdose, but contacting an emergency hospital or addiction treatment center can help you restore the breathing rate of your loved ones. Ketamine overdose is rare, but not impossible. Unconsciousness, blood pressure fluctuation, chest pain, and respiratory depression are a few signs of overdosing on ketamine. Immediate intervention is important to prevent your loved one from dying.
Ketamine impairs the brain communication pathway, leaving you disoriented for hours. Get over the Ketamine dependency today to have your normal functioning back 844.445.2565.
Highlights
- Ketamine is a Schedule III substance, which means it carries addiction potential and should never be used without a prescription
- There are no known anecdotes to ketamine at the moment, but some respiratory stimulants have already been identified for reversal for restoring breathing and can be used in ketamine od (overdose)
- Restoring your consciousness is just one step of the treatment, it is important to undergo rehab to eliminate the effects of ketamine abuse
Table of Contents
What Is Ketamine?
Ketamine is a schedule III controlled substance used during surgeries as a general anesthesia, alone or in combination with other similar drugs because at lower doses, it acts as an analgesic, and sedative, producing:
- Pain relief
- Relaxation
- Calming effect
At high doses, ketamine acts as a hallucinogenic agent, causing:
- Hallucinations
- Memory loss
The ketamine higher doses are:
For Intravenous injection= 1 to 1.5 mg/kg
For Intramuscular injection= 3 to 4 mg/kg
Executive Clinical Director at ChoicePoint
Ketamine has a lot of street names. Party drugs, date/rape drugs, dissociative, K, and vitamin K are on top of my mind right now. Although not approved by the FDA, doctors prescribe ketamine for treating depression. But, you should not ever use it without the supervision of your doctor, or else you can land in trouble. It’s a sad fact that teenagers and youth (age: 16-24) reportedly abuse this party drug four times more than any age group.
Can You Overdose On Ketamine
The chances of overdosing on ketamine are less when used alone, but misusing it recreationally in large doses, or mixing it with alcohol, benzos, and other drugs, does put you at serious risks of experiencing overdose. Here are some of the signs of drug overdose:
- Altered consciousness
- Pinpointed eye pupil
- Disrupt heart rhythms
- Paralysis
- Chest pain
- Extremely low blood pressure
How Does Ketamine Work?
Ketamine blocks the NMDA receptors. NMDA receptors are the regions within your brain where chemicals (called glutamate neurotransmitters) responsible for calming and memory formation bind. Here is the mechanism of action of ketamine:
- Ketamine binds to the NMDA receptors
- It changes the receptor’s shape to prevent glutamate from attaching to it
- Brain communication of learning and memory forming is blocked
- You start to feel dissociative and sedative effects
- Ketamine also interacts with the other regions of the brain to give the following effects:
- Pain management (due to interaction with opioid receptors)
- Mood regulation (due to interaction with the monoamine system)
- Muscle movement and attention (interacts with a cholinergic system)
Ketamine Symptoms And Warning Signs
Why Does Not Naloxone Reverse Ketamine?
Narcan/Naloxone does not reverse ketamine overdose because Naloxone is an opioid antagonist. It binds to the opioid receptors and inhibits them from activating pain management or reward sensations. Here are three reasons Naloxone will not reverse ketamine od:
- Nalaoxne only binds to the opioid receptors
- Naloxone cannot displace ketamine from NMDA receptors
- Major effects of ketamine come from its binding to the NMDA receptors
Narcan can only reverse the overdose from the drugs attached to the opioids. And even though ketamine binds to a few opioid receptors, the hallucinogenic and sedative effects are majorly the result of inhibiting the NMDA receptors.
What Is The Reversal Agent For Ketamine?
Ketamine is still new in the industry and there is not much research on ketamine poisoning Hence, there are no FDA-approved ketamine antidotes. However, doctors, based on their experience, can use a few medicines to restore your breathing, consciousness, and other overdose signs. The following three medicines have the potential to reverse ketamine poisoning, because, unlike naloxone, they stimulate respiration regardless of which receptor ketamine works on:
- Dopram (Doxapram)
- Danavorexton (Still under study)
- Ampalex (Ampakines)
| Ketamine Reversal Agent | Available or Under-study? | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Doxapram | Brand name: Dopram |
A single dose of Dopram has shown promise in:
|
| Danavorexton | Still under study |
Activates regions of the brain responsible for controlling metabolism to enhance:
|
| Ampakines | Brand name: Ampalex |
Targets glutamate chemicals to:
|