Get all the very latest news in Ireland straight to your email every single day Sign up! Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

The party drug ketamine permanently damages the bladder and in extreme cases it has to be removed, scientist warn.

The Class B drug, also known as Special K, is a powerful general anaesthetic commonly used as a horse tranquilliser.

It is secreted from the body through urine but is toxic and damages the epithelial lining of the bladder.

This allows urine to penetrate into underlying tissues which causes inflammation and extreme pain.

Urologists warn anyone who experiences bladder pain when using ketamine to stop taking the drug immediately, as if too many bladder cells are killed there will not be enough remaining to repair the tissue.

In some cases the pain is so bad the bladder has to be removed through a procedure known as cystectomy.

Read more :

Those who had the surgery often find it severely affects the sex lives of both men and women by causing erectile dysfunction and sex impossible.

(Image: Getty)

Dr Simon Baker, Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of York's Department of Biology carried out two studies looking into the toxic effect of the drug.

He said: "These two studies combine to demonstrate that direct contact with urinary ketamine causes significant bladder damage, and shows how this drug causes the death of previously healthy bladder cells.

"We now have a more detailed understanding of how and why chronic ketamine abuse results in bladder problems and cystitis.

"Understanding the full side-effects of ketamine is very important as other researchers are currently investigating the potential for this drug to spawn a new generation of anti-depressants."

(Image: Adam Gerrard / Sunday Mirror)

The first study in collaboration with doctors from Middlesbrough and Leeds hospitals looked at a cystectomy case.

This would determine whether bladder damage was caused by direct contact with urinary ketamine or whether the drug causes a systemic change in the whole body that affects the organ.

Reporting a rare physiological coincidence, the team studied epithelial cells lining the bladder and also in an adjacent remnant of the foetal urinary tract, not in contact with urine, known as an urachus.

Finding that epithelial cells lining the bladder were almost completely absent, having died and been sloughed off into the urine, epithelial cells from the urachus appeared healthy.

Results showed direct contact with urine is critical to the toxicity of ketamine to the bladder epithelium, ruling out systemic factors.

Read more :

In the second study, the researchers used epithelium cells taken from healthy patients to study how ketamine affects the bladder.

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

It was found ketamine overwhelms the cell's internal power stations, known as mitochondria, causing a catastrophic release of toxins.

To avoid this "melt-down", cells commit a controlled form of suicide (apoptosis) resulting in cell death.

This occurs in a regulated fashion that does not cause excessive toxicity to other cells in an attempt to protect the remaining tissue.

However, in the case of chronic ketamine abuse, all epithelial cells are killed.

The study was published in the American Journal of Pathology.

