Is ketamine addictive?

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Is ketamine addictive?
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Is ketamine addictive?

• Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic approved by
  FDA to manage post-surgery pain. These days, IV
  ketamine therapy is also used to treat depression
  and anxiety after awareness has been spread about
  mental health leading to wide research in
  developing more effective treatments. Ketamine
  infusions have already proven to be highly
  effective in managing treatment-resistant
  depression. However, it can also allow its
  consumers to have out-of-body experiences and the
  person will feel detached from the self and the
  surrounding environment when misused. Ketamine
  might have adverse effects and addictive
  properties. Getting to know more about the drug,
  its addictive pattern and the drugs use can help
  people detect misuse of the drug in themselves or
  the people around them.

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How addictive is Ketamine?
Ketamine has been categorized as a Schedule III
drug due to the possibility of it being used for
addiction or abusive purposes. It has lower
chances of dependence as compared to Schedule I
and Schedule II drugs. Using Ketamine for a
longer time can lead to physical dependence and
withdrawal, its psychological addiction is far
more concerning. People who consume ketamine for
abusive purposes tend to develop tolerance to the
drug in the early stages. As a result, they need
to take larger and larger doses of ketamine
infusions to get the same effects of getting high
again. If they fail to do it, they will
experience withdrawal symptoms which include
insomnia, depression, and flashbacks.
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How addictive is Ketamine?
It is quite tough for the users to identify how
much of the drug they have consumed precisely.
Overdoses alone on ketamine infusions are quite
infrequent. However, overdosing does happen.
Overdosing normally involves combining the drug
with other drugs like alcohol. As the people
consuming ketamine usually do not know the number
of their consumptions, this risk is true when it
is mixed with other drugs. It can be used for
abusive purposes in different ways like snorting,
taking orally, and through injections. It is
usually sold as a fine white powder after it is
being converted from a liquid state. It has also
been used as a date rape drug and slipped into
other peoples drinks to sedate them so they
couldnt resist.
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Side effects of Ketamine infusions

• Ketamine infusions for recreational purposes
  involve several side effects. While consuming
  ketamine, many people may experience
  breathlessness, falling unconscious or seizures A
  person may also have a loss of muscle control and
  dissociation which can result in a high risk of
  assault or any other harm. Several people at
  times injured themselves while high on the drugs
  and they dont even remember doing it. The
  chances of an overdose are high when mixing
  ketamine with alcohol or other drugs. Long term
  side effects of the overdose include
• Elevated blood pressure
• Bladder or kidney issues
• Addiction
• Memory impairment
• Depression
• Anxiety

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Statistics about ketamine infusion addiction

• The data available on the addiction to ketamine
  infusion is very low in the United States. This
  lack of availability of information is mostly
  because the drug, when used alone, does not cause
  death or have any severe life-threatening side
  effects. The available data is mostly combined
  with other drugs like LSD and PCP. The United
  States is considered to rank first all over the
  world in the number of school and college
  students who use the combination of these drugs.