Effects of ketamine use on psychotic disorders and symptoms in male, methamphetamine-dependent subjects

ABSTRACT

Background: Repeated and extensive methamphetamine or ketamine use may cause psychotic symptoms. Whether the chronic and combined use of these substances has a greater psychotic effect is still unknown.

Objectives: To examine the effect of different levels of ketamine use on psychotic disorders and symptoms in male methamphetamine-dependent subjects.

Methods: A cross-sectional, structured, and clinical interview method was used to examine the differences in DSM-IV-TR Axis I psychotic disorders and symptoms among methamphetamine-dependent subjects in three categories: 205 with no ketamine use, 38 with occasional ketamine use, and 72 with ketamine abuse or dependence from compulsory rehabilitation centers.

Results: Both methamphetamine-dependent subjects with occasional ketamine use and those with ketamine abuse or dependence had a higher prevalence of psychotic disorders than those who had not used ketamine (p = 0.021; p < 0.001). Subjects who used ketamine occasionally had a higher prevalence of referential and persecutory delusions (p < 0.001; p = 0.013) and auditory hallucinations (p = 0.030), and those with ketamine abuse or dependence had a higher prevalence of referential and persecutory delusions (p = 0.005; p = 0.021), compared with those who had not used ketamine. There was no significant difference in any psychotic disorders or symptoms between subjects with occasional ketamine use and those with ketamine abuse or dependence.

Conclusions: The combination of methamphetamine and ketamine was associated with greater psychotic effects than methamphetamine alone. Both occasional ketamine use and ketamine abuse or dependence were associated with increased psychotic symptoms and disorders in methamphetamine-dependent males.

KEYWORDS:

• DSM-IV
• ketamine
• methamphetamine
• psychotic disorders
• psychotic symptoms

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to the staff of the Hunan Bainihu, Xinkaipu and Qingdao compulsory rehabilitation centers for their assistance throughout the course of this study. We also want to thank our corresponding author who supported the compulsory rehabilitation centers not only with funding but also with medical consultation and education.

Availability of data and materials

All data generated or analyzed in this study are included in this published article. Datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to the participants’ rights to privacy, but they are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Authors’ contributions

Authors HXD, YDS, WH designed the study. HXD, CY, LL, MQL implemented the study. HXD analyzed the data and wrote the paper. All the authors contributed to and have approved the final manuscript.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interest.

Consent for publication

We have obtained consent to publish from the participants to allow us to report individual patient data.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University (Changsha, China). Written informed consent was obtained from all participants. We have obtained consent to publish from the participants to report individual patient data. The study was conducted according to the standards of the Declaration of Helsinki.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFC3140401) and the National 973 Program (2015CB553500) to Wei Hao.