NHS opens first ketamine clinic for children as young as 12

The NHS has opened the UK’s first-ever ketamine clinic for teenagers as more and more children turn to the drug.

12-year-olds are among the ‘increasing numbers’ of young people attending A&E due to the class B substance.

Doctors at Alder Hay Children’s Hospital in Liverpool launched the service last month with the hopes of treating ketamine abuse and dependency.

Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows one in 20 (4.8%) of 20 to 24-year-olds in England and Wales admitted to taking the drug last year.

While nearly seven per cent of today’s 16-24 year olds have experimented with ‘ket’.

Also called ‘K’ or ‘Special K’, ketamine is often used as a party drug and is known for inducing out-of-body experiences, hallucinations and a trance-like state.

Ketamine use has surged by 85% from 2023 to 2024, while deaths related to the drug are up a staggering 650% from 2015.

It means one person dies a week in a ketamine linked case on average.

Harriet Corbett, a consultant paediatric neurologist at Alder Hay Children’s Hospital, who helped set up the service, said the clinic was set up to respond to the surge in young people suffering from ‘Ketamine Bladder’.

The condition, called ketamine-induced uropathy, affects a person’s urinary system. Symptoms include debilitating pain from an inflamed and shrunken bladder and ‘K cramps’, which can lead to kidney failure.

She told BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast: ‘Sadly, our youngest referral was for a patient who was 12, we’re seeing a lot of 14 and 15-year-olds. 

‘There are an increasing number under the age of 16, which is why we’ve had to set up a clinic.

‘No one else, as far as we know, is seeing quite as many children in that age group. 

‘We know it is available in some schools and out in the community as well. Parents can be really distressed and distraught.’

She added: ‘An increasing number of patients are coming into mostly the emergency department with symptoms from their ketamine use and those are increasingly from the bladder. 

‘They really struggle because their bladder can’t hold enough urine and are often passing blood in their urine as well and having to get up at night, sometimes wetting the bed. 

‘Those are pretty distressing symptoms for the children. 

‘Ketamine gets concentrated in the urine and then gets absorbed through the bladder wall and causes it to become inflamed. 

‘That over time makes the bladder wall very stiff and can’t stretch in the way it normally would do. 

‘Ketamine can cause permanent damage, so we want to see the children as early as we can to explain what it can do and what the long-term picture of using ketamine looks like.’

One factor driving ketamine’s popularity among young people is that it is a cheaper alternative to other party drugs like cocaine. The drug, also used as a horse tranquilliser, costs about £10 per gram, while cocaine will cost more like £60 per gram.

Recent celebrity deaths have thrown the country’s ketamine problem into the spotlight.

RuPaul’s Drag Race star The Vivienne died ‘from the effects of ketamine use, causing a cardiac arrest’ on January 5 this year.

While One Direction star Liam Payne had a drug cocktail named pink cocaine, which typically includes ketamine, in his system when he fell off a hotel balcony in Argentina.

Medical research has found that twice-weekly injections could reduce the impact of severe depression – but that doesn’t change the fact that it can have serious health implications if taken long-term.

Severe bladder damage, causing people to need the toilet every half an hour, damage to the short- and long-term memory, increased heart rate and blood pressure, and potentially even liver damage, could all come as a result of ketamine abuse.

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