Quote:
Originally posted by butthead
Ketamine has similar risks to drugs like PCP and DXM. Too much may lead to mental impairment and possibly microscopic vacules (holes) in your brain ("Olney's lesions", named after the scientist who discovered it). Although I do not not if it is possible for even non-human primates to suffer from Olney's lesions due to ketamine/dxm/pcp use, it is clear that impairment most likely will occur. Symptoms of impairment seem to disappear with time.
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Just to be the opposing voice here, it should be noted that Olney's Lesions have never been shown to occur in humans. In fact, the animals in which they have been found (rats) have an entirely different metabolization pathway for the above-mentioned dissociatives, making it highly unlikely that Olney's Lesions could occur. The paper linking use of dissociatives to Olney's Lesions and NAN (NMDA Antagonist Neurotoxicity) was not peer-reviewed or published in any journals. The author, William White, was once usenet's resident DXM expert, but he has not been heard from for some time now.
In short, he made it up. It's an interesting theory, but nothing more than that. Most reports of mental impairment in dissociative users come from reeeally heavy usage (5+ times a week) and as far as I know most people generally recover after a year or two of not using it. Sure, even a bit of short-term impairment is bad, but its certainly possible to use dissociatives at levels below those at which impairment seems to be fairly common (not 5+ times a week :P)