Club Drug ‘Special K’ Could Leave Users Incontinent

[slimvictor]

SUNDAY, May 30 (HealthDay News) — Long-term abuse of the recreational drug ketamine, often called “Special K” by the young partygoers who use it, is now linked to a heightened risk for pelvic pain and urinary incontinence.

The finding is based on a 2009 survey conducted by a team of researchers out of Hong Kong. They questioned 66 male and female teen and young adult ketamine users (13 to 25 years old) about their drug experience.

Although almost half said they did not believe they were addicted to the drug, the authors found that those with a two-year plus history of ketamine abuse were subject to an increase both in pelvic pain and the urgent and frequent need to urinate.

Relative to less frequent use, those who took “K” more than five times per week also experienced reduced bladder capacity.

cont at
http://news.health.com/2010/05/31/club-drug-special-k-could-leave-users-incontinent/

 

[edgarshade]

But Dr. Adam Bisaga, an associate professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, as well as an addiction psychiatrist at New York State Psychiatric Institute in New York City, believes use of Special K may not be rampant.

“My take on this is that ketamine use as a whole is not a big public health problem, in the way that cocaine, marijuana, and opiate abuse are,” he said. “Yes, this sort of complication with K can happen. It can certainly be an issue for some patients. But it’s not honestly something that has been occupying the attention of most drug abuse treatment providers.”

Since when was marijuana a health "problem"? Also, where is alcohol in that list? That glaring omission is huge health problem.

Other than that at least this guy doesn't think K use is very much to worry about, so it's not all bad news.

 

[slimvictor]

^ agreed. And where is tobacco, the number 1 killer, on Dr. Brainwashing's list?

 

[LogicSoDeveloped]

Tobacco and alcohol affect way more people than k lol. K isn't exactly the most widely used or easily found drug ever.

 

[qwe]

to be fair, to those studying drugs, and to those witnessing their effects on society (all of us), illicit drugs DO look like a different sort of "problem" than licit drugs.

(only because they're illicit. see alcohol prohibition.)

 

[Public//Enemy]

K is very common on in the EU and has single handedly changed the music scene in the UK

 

[TheLostBoys]

to be fair, to those studying drugs, and to those witnessing their effects on society (all of us), illicit drugs DO look like a different sort of "problem" than licit drugs.

(only because they're illicit. see alcohol prohibition.)

I watched the a documentary the pther night on prohibition & I saw what lengths people went to to get their alcohol. White people were going into black neighborhoods to drink their favorite alcoholic beverage in the speakeasies back in the 20's. I believe this lasted 11 years into the early 30's & there were about 100,000 speakeasies in New York city alone. (history lesson)

Its amazing how the doctor above tells us the dangers about drugs but leaves out the 2 biggest threats of our society, alcohol & tobacco.

 

[LogicSoDeveloped]

my first three drugs were (in this order) alcohol, tobacco, and then marijuana.

 

[mattnotrik]

K is very common on in the EU and has single handedly changed the music scene in the UK

Yeah getting ket here in england for me is as about easy as getting weed. Most people i know just use ket at the end of the night now instead of weed, but continue to use to just everytime they drink aswell.

1 of my mates pisses himself quite alot because he abuses the K so much lol but hes only just stopped using it

 

[Dr.DOB]

Ketamine doesn't lead to incontinence if used only once per week.

 

[3rd_I_blind]

to be fair, to those studying drugs, and to those witnessing their effects on society (all of us), illicit drugs DO look like a different sort of "problem" than licit drugs.

Illicit drugs are by definition a bigger thread to society, since they cause hundreds of thousands of people to lose their job, go to jail, etc. Also, when is the last time someone got stabbed to death over two shots of tequila!? People smoking cigarettes and getting cancer isn't really a thread to society, especially not since they usually get cancer in the later part of their productive life.

The 'OMG, look at alcohol and tobacco!!' argument is nice for kitchen conversation, but imho should not be used to discredit these kind of reports. People pissing themselves because of heavy ketamine abuse isn't suddenly cured by blindly proclaiming tobacco and alcohol are so much worse; it's just ignorance.

Ketamine doesn't lead to incontinence if used only once per week.

Where did you get this information, or is it just your gut feeling? Since the article mentions auto-immune reactions as part of the disease process, it seems that duration of abuse is just as important as frequency of abuse.

 

[slimvictor]

Illicit drugs are by definition a bigger thread to society, since they cause hundreds of thousands of people to lose their job, go to jail, etc. Also, when is the last time someone got stabbed to death over two shots of tequila!? People smoking cigarettes and getting cancer isn't really a thread to society, especially not since they usually get cancer in the later part of their productive life.

The 'OMG, look at alcohol and tobacco!!' argument is nice for kitchen conversation, but imho should not be used to discredit these kind of reports. People pissing themselves because of heavy ketamine abuse isn't suddenly cured by blindly proclaiming tobacco and alcohol are so much worse; it's just ignorance.

Illegal drugs are only a bigger threat to society because of the immoral laws that are in place. Nothing inherent in the illegal drugs is - necessarily - more dangerous than the legal drugs such as alcohol, tobacco, prozac, and Ritalin.

The drugs most definitely do not cause hundreds of thousands of people to lose their jobs, go to jail, or get stabbed to death.

The laws cause hundreds of thousands of people to lose their jobs, go to jail, and get stabbed to death.

You are making a very, very common but very, very significant mistake.
Your analysis is too shallow. This is what the authorities are counting on.

You are ignoring the true cause of the societal problem and focusing on an almost entirely innocent link further down the chain.

The "OMG look at alcohol and tobacco" argument is most definitely more than kitchen conversation.
It is an attempt to shake people loose from the brainwashing they have received and fallen for and to retreat to a standard of life based on morality and the ideal of the freedom of the pursuit of happiness.
Your scorn does not change the fact that people need shaking awake.
Your point seems to be that Ketamine truly is, in fact, causing people difficulty in urination.
No one here was disputing that fact, as far as I can tell.
We were simply pointing out a far, far more important way to look at the big picture, trying our best to counter the constant slant of the media.

 

[3rd_I_blind]

You are making a very, very common but very, very significant mistake.

I'm not making a mistake, I was just expressing my opinion in two sentences so the story behind it got lost. Of course people go to jail because of the law, but that does not change the fact illicit drugs are a bigger thread to society than the legal drugs that do not cause people to go to jail. I am absolutely not of the opinion it is just (as in 'fair') this way; the biggest thread to society - when considering illicit drugs - is the law regarding their use/possession/production itself. It the drugs would not be illicit, the thread to society would be decimated, undoubtedly.

So thanks for calling my analysis too shallow... I understand where you're coming from, but I have seen you post in some other topics where I also posted, so I believe you should/could have known my opinion was not as shallow as you perceive it to be. (Although I do not expect you to remember every single post every other member makes, obviously)

 

[slimvictor]

^ Please forgive me if I offended you and if my words were harsh.
I did not mean to be insulting.
I do remember you, and that your posts are typically very well-thought-out and in-line with my beliefs, so I was somewhat surprised to see that we did not seem to agree here.

(I still think that you made a mistake with what you said earlier, though, by adopting a perspective that is what the brainwashers want...)

 

[Mora Fiend]

Also, when is the last time someone got stabbed to death over two shots of tequila!?

There was a lady in my area not too long ago that shot her husband because he didn't offer her a beer out of his 6-pack.

 

[3rd_I_blind]

^ Please forgive me if I offended you and if my words were harsh.
I did not mean to be insulting.

It's okay, I was not insulted or anything. Though I must admit it felt really painful being called 'shallow' while I usually pride myself on my liberal point of view. (I work as a toxicologist so it's not like my colleagues share my visions on drugs of abuse, LOL).

(I still think that you made a mistake with what you said earlier, though, by adopting a perspective that is what the brainwashers want...)

Hmmm, let me elaborate a bit on that (apologies for derailing the thread). I was more trying to point out the perspective of a scientist doing such a study. If you study the effects of illicit drugs and their (detrimental) effects on society, you also incorporate effects that are not directly causally related to using the drugs. Since in the current political/legal climate, those risks can not be attributed to anything else but using those drugs (legal policies do not hold as risk factors in a statistical analysis). It's the same with STDs (for instance): They are not causally related to using heroin, but injecting heroin with unclean needles can not be attributed to anything else but using heroin (unless your research is in the league of providing clean needles to addicts or something similar).

Think of it like this: If an engineer is doing a study on how to increase the survival chances of pedestrians hit by a car, you could also say 'OMG tobacco and alcohol kill many more people, wtf dude!?' but it would be absolutely preposterous. However, if a scientist devotes a yearlong study on the detrimental effects of ketamine, it is kind of the same thing to go on a rant about tobacco and alcohol; one difference being that alcohol and tobacco might fit in the same category as ketamine of course. Those kind of arguments are fit for personal discussions with uneducated people (imo), like your parents or friends that do not condone your drug use. On the other hand, in the current discussion they serve no goal. The dangers of perpetually peeing your pants does not disappear by ranting about alcohol/tobacco, and besides that it's preaching to your own flock - which is exactly what's so despicable about the anti-drug community.

 

[3rd_I_blind]

There was a lady in my area not too long ago that shot her husband because he didn't offer her a beer out of his 6-pack.

LOL, you got me there.
Though I must say this reeks of a history of domestic abuse, and hardly qualifies as a dealer/addict relationship.

 

[Mora Fiend]

^ Hehe yea I just laughed when I thought of what she would of done for 2 shots of tequila!

 

[qwe]

However, if a scientist devotes a yearlong study on the detrimental effects of ketamine, it is kind of the same thing to go on a rant about tobacco and alcohol

there was no rant about tobacco and alcohol... there was a reasonable complaint about the article's journalism... the article listed the "worst drugs for society", and it omitted alcohol and tobacco. yet it's a simple fact that alcohol and tobacco (financially speaking, and physiologically speaking especially) are up there at the top.

 

[3rd_I_blind]

there was no rant about tobacco and alcohol... there was a reasonable complaint about the article's journalism... the article listed the "worst drugs for society", and it omitted alcohol and tobacco. yet it's a simple fact that alcohol and tobacco (financially speaking, and physiologically speaking especially) are up there at the top.

My bad, if it's those retarded, bigotted, repulsive journalists again it's something else. I must have misread and thought those comments were directed at the study or its results, apologies!