Ketamine Bladder Syndrome

Ketamine bladder syndrome is a fairly new reported side effect to K use, first documented in 2007. In the past two years, clinicians in Asia, Canada, the USA and Europe have reported treating young, teenage ketamine abusers who appear to have severe and possibly irreversible bladder damage.

Extreme ketamine use can injure the bladder, causing ulcers (wounds) in the bladder, as well as fibrosis (stiffening of the bladder walls and shrinkage). Patients often struggle with urinary frequency, urgency, pressure, pain, incontinence and/or bleeding from the bladder. They can receive a variety of diagnoses including ulcerative bladder, interstitial cystitis or ketamine cystitis.

Ketamine may be legitimately prescribed to pain patients suffering from severe neuropathic pain or for malignant or “end of life” pain control. Our intent with this website is NOT TO DISCOURAGE the use of ketamine for legitimate pain care. Rather we want to raise awareness for this potential side effect.

In recreational and/or criminal use, ketamine is known as a “date rape drug” for its dissociated amnesia effect and has quickly outgrown heroin and methamphetamine as the drug of choice due to its low cost and easy accessibility in many parts of the world. It is commonly used at RAVE parties and is known as a “Club Drug,” often mixed with ecstasy. A mild hallucinogenic, it has several street names including:

Cat Tranquilizer

Cat Valium
Jet

Kit Kat

Purple

Special K

Super K

Special La Coke

Super Acid

Vitamin K

This website was created to raise awareness about the ketamine and its potential risk of bladder symptoms. We hope to help young ketamine addicts learn about the risk of the medication and to provide resource center for clinicians currently attempting to work with these patients. It is a project of the Interstitial Cystitis Network.

DISCLAIMER - THIS WEBSITE WAS CREATED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT INTENDED TO BE A SUBSTITUTE FOR PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL ADVICE, NOR DO WE PROVIDE ANY MEDICAL CARE SERVICES. WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO SEEK THE ADVICE OF YOUR PHYSICIAN OR OTHER QUALIFIED HEALTH PROVIDER WITH ANY QUESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE REGARDING YOUR HEALTH.