Ketamine drug class

PCP/ketamine is the drug class that most faithfully mimics schizophrenia in healthy persons and most potently and validly exacerbates schizophrenia symptoms in schizophrenic patients. Lahti et al. (1995) showed increased rCBF in the anterior cingulate and decreased rCBF in the hippocampus and lingual gyrus. 

Substances from different chemical classes suspend consciousness when given intravenously and can be used as injectable anesthetics (B). Unlike inha-lational agents, most of these drugs affect consciousness only and are devoid of analgesic activity (exception ketamine). The effect cannot be ascribed to nonselective binding to neuronal cell membranes, although this may hold for propofol... 

Ketamine, more commonly known on the street as Special K and to the scientist as ketamine hydrochloride, is a unique drug with a combination of pharmacological effects. Although it is primarily used by veterinarians as an animal tranquilizer, it is available for limited uses in humans. Chemically, it is similar to phencyclidine (PCP or angel dust), a Schedule II drug that was the first of a new class of general anesthetics called dissociative anesthetics. As the name implies, dissociative anesthetics produce in patients a feeling of detachment and disconnection from pain and the environment. 

Dissociative anesthetic A class of drugs including PCP and ketamine (Chapter 12). 

Ketamine is an anaesthetic drug used in both human and veterinary medicine. Because it is commonly abused due to its hallucinogenic effects, it is a class C controlled drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act. 

Label the stereogenic center(s) in each drug as R or S. L-Dopa is used to treat Parkinson s disease (Chapter 1). Ketamine is an anesthetic. EnalaprII belongs to a class of drugs called ACE inhibitors, which are used to lower blood pressure. 

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