Are Sexes Affected Differently by Ketamine? An Exploratory Study in Ketamine Users

Abstract

One hundred primary ketamine users and 100 controls were recruited in Hong Kong between December 2009 and December 2011. Cognitive assessment included general intelligence, working, verbal, and visual memory, and executive functions. A Univariate General Linear Model was used to compare cognitive performance between the male and female ketamine users and controls. The female users appeared to have a higher risk of visual memory impairment than their male counterparts. Further studies are warranted to clarify the mechanism of the sex-specific effect of ketamine on cognitive functions.

Keywords :

• ketamine
• substance abuse
• sex
• cognitive functions
• memory
• executive function

THE AUTHORS

Hua Jun Liang, PhD, is a psychiatrist in China. She is now working as research assistant in Department of Psychiatry, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research interests focus on substance use disorders and stroke with emphasis on psychiatric morbidities, cognitive functioning, and subsequent neurological alterations.

Chieh Grace Lau, MA, is a research assistant in the Department of Psychiatry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research interests focus on the psychological and cognitive impacts of substance abuse. She is currently assisting on the changes on cognitive function and neurotoxicity following the abstinence of ketamine.

Alan K Tang, MD, is a specialist Psychiatrist at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong. He has specialized in the treatment of substance misuse disorders for more than 5 years. The substance abuse clinic (SAC) at the Prince of Wales Hospital, of which the principal applicant is in charge, has been in operation for more than 10 years, and it specializes in the treatment of substance abusers with comorbid mental disorders. He is also involved in research activities concerning the use of psychotropic drugs locally. His recent research includes cognitive deficits in ketamine abusers and psychiatric morbidity in young people admitted to detoxification centers.

Dr. Fu Chan, MD, is a Psychiatrist from Hong Kong. He is working at Department of Psychiatry, North District Hospital in Hong Kong. His research interests include substance use in adolescence and psychiatric morbidities in substance abusers.

Gabor S. Ungvari, MD, PhD, FRANZCP, FRCPsych, is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Notre Dame University Australia and the School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia. He has authored and co-authored more than 300 papers in peer-reviewed journals, contributed 20 book chapters, and edited and co-edited four books. His main research interest include general psychopathology, drug-induced movement disorders, and catatonia.

Wai Kwong Tang, MD, is professor in the Department of Psychiatry, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, as well as a council member of the Hong Kong College of Psychiatrists and member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He is currently the consultant-in-charge of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for the New Territories East Cluster of Psychiatry. Professor Tang's key research areas include ECT, psychiatric morbidities in stroke and pneumoconiosis, pharmacology of schizophrenia and catatonia, psychiatric rehabilitation, telepsychiatry, and substance abuse disorder. His extensive research and work in the area of ECT is well recognized, to the extent that he has been invited to contribute a chapter on this topic in the Asian Textbook of Psychiatry. Professor Tang has published 70 papers in renowned journals such as Stroke, Journal of Affective Disorders, and Journal of Neurology, and has also contributed to the peer review of 12 journals, including the Journal of Psychosomatic Research. His keen interest in research has led him to publish close to 80 refereed conference papers and abstracts at various local, regional, and international psychiatry and neurology conferences. He was also a recipient of the Young Researcher Award in 2007, awarded by the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Professor Tang was an invited speaker at the First Chinese World Conference of Ageing and Dementia in 2007. He is also involved in training nurses on stroke care.