MAPS: Ketamine experiments

["Nicholas V. Cozzi, Ph.D." <nvcozzi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>From The Daily Reflector, Greenville, NC, January 1, 1999

ETHICISTS QUESTION HALLUCINOGEN EXPERIMENTS
The Associated Press
BOSTON - Medical ethicists are raising objections to a study in which 100
healthy volunteers were given a powerful hallucinogen in an effort to
better understand mental illness.
	In studies conducted at the National Institute of Mental Health, Yale
University and several other places, test subjects took small doses of
ketamine, also referred to as "Special K".  It is also commonly known as a
"date rape drug".
	Scientists conducting the study said volunteers were carefully screened
for mental illness and signed consent forms that warned of side effects
such as hallucinations and mood changes.
	But some critics said the risks of the drug are not fully known and
questioned the ethics of inducing psychotic behavior in healthy people.
	"The idea of inducing psychosis, in psychology or psychiatry, is the worst
thing that can happen," Carl Tishler, an adjunct professor at Ohio State
University, said Thursday.  "If you are a cardiologist do you induce a
heart attack in someone to see what it's like so you can study it?"
	Ketamine is a trendy new designer drug used mainly by young people who pay
$20 to $40 per dose.  Nationwide, the drug has been connected to at least
one death of a teen-ager who mixed it with heroin; numerous sexual
assaults; and thefts from veterinarians' offices and hospitals.
	Often used as a prescription surgical anesthetic for people and animals,
the Food and Drug Administration-approved drug can cause mild
hallucinations, confusion and fear with regular use.  Severe hallucinations
are possible with large doses.
	The Boston Globe reported Thursday that healthy subjects run the risk of
flashbacks months after using ketamine.
	"If this is what they do to normal (people), God help us with the
cognitively impaired," Adil Shamoo, a University of Maryland bioethicist,
told the newspaper.
	But scientists say ketamine can help unlock the mysteries of mental
illness, especially schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease, by giving
researchers insight into the nature of hallucinations and mood disorders.
	The experiments began in the early 1990s and ended more than a year ago.  
they were designed to provoke symptoms of schizophrenia in heathy people
during a one-time exposure, said Dr. Trey Sunderland, chairman of NIMH's
review board.
	He said the volunteers were screened for mental illness, drug use and
medical problems before being injected with approximately one-twentieth of
an average surgical dose.  Some subjects were paid between $30 and $40, he
said.


Nicholas V. Cozzi, Ph.D.
Department of Pharmacology
East Carolina University School of Medicine
Greenville, NC  27858


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