The purpose of this report is to educate people about Ketamine and identify Ketamine's effect of an individual’s relationships and physical health. Relationships and physical health are important to our society in many different ways, Ketamine has major effects on individuals that use it. Relationships are very important to society, relationships are something an individual needs to live a happy and successful life, without relationships, the individual may have a dramatic affect on society and ‘bring down the mood.’ A person’s physical health is very important, there are a lot of things that come under physical health. There are a lot of services to health with someone’s physical health, but when time and money is being spent on people that have abused a drug, it can have a big effect on society.
This report starts with the process of production of Ketamine and shows the elements it has to making it, then it goes on to talk about the chemical formula and make up. The report then goes on to explain the consequences of using Ketamine and how it affects the individual’s body and brain. The report finishes off with explaining how Ketamine affects an individual’s relationships and physical health.



Background

The production of ketamine is a long process to go through. 10g of methyl ketamine is firstly dissolved in 100mls of undecane and boiled at 195oC for three to four hours. Ketamine is then extracted from the undecane with 20% Hydrochloric acid. After the ketamine is extracted the acidic extract is mixed with a base to be neutralised and extracted with dichloromethane. The solvent is removed with the product which is then retrieved as an oil that crystallizes quickly. The product can than be purified by recrystallization from a pentane / ether mixture or a hexane / ether mixture.

Figure one showing ketamine in its final solid form. Figure 1: Ketamine Structural Formula CC BY-SA 4.0 Retrieved from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:(%C2%B1)-Ketamine_Structural_Formula_V1.svg

Ketamine Hydrochloride’s makeup is very advanced with the chemical formula being C13H16ClNO. Ketamines molecular weight is 237.727 g/mol but the exact mass of ketamine is 237.092 g/mol. When Ketamine is placed in water, it is estimated to become soluble at 2.8X10+3 mg/L at 250C. Ketamine can come in three different forms. It can come as a tablet, liquid or the most common way, as a powder. Ketamine’s melting point is between 920C - 930C. Ketamine has three functional groups; they are, chloroketamine, secketamine, and carbonylketamine.

Ketamine has been used to relieve neuropathic pain in patients, ketamine for this use comes in a ketamine gel which is applied to the skin. Scientists are researching how much ketamine needs to be applied to the skin for it to enter the bloodstream and cause side effects. Scientists are trying to eliminate side effects such as dizziness, nausea, nightmares, agitation and hallucinations. Ketamine, when used for chronic pain, is injected into the mouth, or as an injection under the skin. These ways would obviously cause the side effects, going almost immediately into the bloodstream. short - term side effects of using Ketamine, is that it can affect the heart by giving the user high blood pressure and rapid heart rate. The organ that Ketamine effects the most is the bladder, long - term effects are that it can cause a decrease in the volume of the bladder, blood in the urine, decrease in the bladder compliance and an overactivity in the muscle that controls the bladder movement.

Ketamine, when used legally, is used as an anesthetic, when used illegally, it can have dramatic effects on the brain. Ketamine plays with the brain's chemical and endocrine system.

Ketamine alters the chemical balance of the brain by slowing the neurotransmitter processes which results in, over time, a destabilization of the brain's chemical balance. Ketamine causes rapid surges in the brains neurotransmitters, called glutamate and GABA. It has been suggested that the effects on these neurotransmitters may be responsible for the drugs antidepressant effects. Using small amounts of ketamine may bring numb, dreamy-like, ‘out of body’ experiences but large doses may be fatal to the body being able to function. Side effects that can be produced by large doses may include; unconsciousness, mystical visions, vivid hallucinations, immobility, high pain threshold and a disconnect from the body.

Discussion

Ketamine is an aesthetic agent and when too much is used it may cause hallucinations. Hallucinations may affect the relationships the person has because hallucinations may change the opinion of the other person in the relationship, this may happen due to the ‘crazy’ thinking of the individual abusing Ketamine.

Shortened attention span may also be caused by using Ketamine, this may affect relationships because in today’s society, the ability to keep a conversation going with someone is vital to keep a relationship, having a short attention span will make it difficult for someone to do that.

Learning impairments may be caused from using the drug. Today’s society is getting smarter and smarter, learning impairments will affect the individual’s ability to learn which may affect the relationships the individual using the drug has. This will affect the person’s relationships because the world’s community is increasing their knowledge and people are surrounding themselves with smarter people, having learning impairments will make the individual get ‘left behind.’

Abusing the drug Ketamine, may cause mental health disorders, including; depression, anxiety and flashbacks. Having these mental health disorders will affect the individual's relationships in many different ways. Depression is a recurring symptom in young people around the world, it is very serious, and if not dealt with properly can have serious effect on the individual’s physical health. Individuals with depression may end up harming themselves or others and could have a serious effect on their lives. Anxiety, when caused by an over use of Ketamine, may have a serious effect on the relationships the individual has by not going out with friends and interacting with society. Flashbacks may have a serious affect on the individual’s relationships and physical health as well. People won’t want to be around that is ‘crazy,’ with the individual having flashbacks of the past they will seem crazy to the people they are around. Flashbacks may also have an effect on the individual’s physical health. The individual may have had a bad childhood or things that have happened in their past causing them to use Ketamine in the first place. Flashbacks of these things may cause the individual to harm themselves or harm others, trying to get rid of them. Ketamine is a drug of dependence, making it easy to become addictive for the individual, causing these things to keep recurring.

If the individual abuses Ketamine or overdoses on the drug, or uses the drug for too long, it can have massive effects on their physical health. Abusing Ketamine can alter or slow the respiratory and cardiac functions. Theses side effects increase the risk of a major decline in health or even the worst possible side effect, death.

Conclusion

Ketamine has a very long and difficult process that it has to go through to be made, it has a very complex chemical formula. Ketamine requires many elements and chemicals to be made and it also requires a fair amount of time. The drug has many different ways of entering the bloodstream and affects many different organs. The user can immediately have short term side effects including;  an increased heart rate and high blood pressure. The user, if they have abused the drug too much, may find themselves having massive problems with their bladder. Ketamine is an anesthetic, it causes the individual to have drowsiness and can have a massive effect on the brain by slowing down neurotransmitters processes and over time, can alter the brain’s chemical balance resulting in problems with hormone and chemical release into the body. Ketamine can have major effects on relationships and physical health, which can have huge effects on today’s society. People need a good physical health as well as have the fundamentals to be able to keep a relationship with someone. Ketamine affects both physical health and the fundamentals to keeping a relationship.

Ketamine has a huge affect on the brain slowing in the neurotransmitter processes and creating an imbalance of chemicals in the brain. Ketamine causes the brain to be slow and drowsy and has an effect on the brain that affects physical and mental health in many different ways.

Public Education Piece

For my public education piece I made a brochure to advise the general public of the information showed in this report..

References

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Specialspack. (2006). Ketamine salts solubility. Retrieved from http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/243166-Ketamine-salts-solubility

Zealot. (2005). Total Synthesis of Ketamine. Retrieved from www.erowid.org/archive/rhodium/chemistry/ketamine2.html