Comparison of Ketamine and Thiopental in Healthy... : Anesthesia & Analgesia (original) (raw)

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Effects on Mental Status, Mood, and Personality

Moretti, Robert J. PhD; Hassan, Shakeela Z. MD; Goodman, Lowell I. MD; Meltzer, Herbert Y. MD

Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University Medical and Dental Schools, Chicago, Illinois; the Departments of Anesthesiology and Psychiatry, University of Chicago School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois; and the Clinical Research Department, Warner Lambert-Parke Davis, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Address correspondence to Dr. Moretti, Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University Medical and Dental Schools, 311 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611.

This research was supported in part by Parke-Davis., Inc., and by USPHS Grants DA 02081 and MH 30938. The assistance of Carol Taminga, MD, and David Brueckner, MD, in the conduct of the study, and of Thomas Ziemba, PhD, and Glenn Curtiss, MEd, in the analysis of the data is gratefully acknowledged.

Accepted for publication August 24, 1984.

Free

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the psychological effects of ketamine and thiopental anesthesia. In a double-blind comparison, 20 normal female volunteers were given 2.5 mg/kg ketamine intravenously and 20 were given 5.0 mg/kg thiopental intravenously. Subjects were assessed with a variety of objective and subjective psychological measures before, immediately after, and 24 hr, 2 weeks, and 4 months after anesthesia. Immediately after anesthesia, there was a significantly greater incidence of abnormalities of mental status in subjects given ketamine than in those who had received thiopental. Changes were generally short-lived and were no longer evident on the following day. No significant differences were found between the two groups with regard to long-term changes in personality. Changes in mental status are attributed to the slower, more uneven return to consciousness of the subjects receiving ketamine.