PSYCHOSIS-INDUCED RESEARCH CRITICIZED

Medical ethicists are raising objections to a study in which 100 healthy
volunteers were given a powerful hallucinogen in an effort by scientists to
better understand mental illness.

In studies conducted at the National Institute of Mental Health, Yale
University and several other places, test subjects took small doses of
ketamine, also known as "Special K" or the "date rape drug."

Scientists conducting the study said volunteers were carefully screened for
mental illness and signed consent forms that warned of side effects such as
hallucinations and mood changes.

But some critics said the risks of the drug are not fully known and
questioned the ethics of inducing psychotic behavior in healthy people.

"The idea of inducing psychosis, in psychology or psychiatry, is the worst
thing that can happen," Carl Tishler, an adjunct professor at Ohio State
University, said Thursday. "If you are a cardiologist do you induce a heart
attack in someone to see what it's like so you can study it?"

Ketamine is a trendy new designer drug used mainly by young people who pay
$20 to $40 per dose. Nationwide, the drug has been connected to at least
one death of a teenager who mixed it with heroin; numerous sexual
assaults; and thefts from veterinarians' offices and hospitals.

Often used as a prescription surgical anesthetic for people and animals,
the Food and Drug Administration-approved drug can cause mild
hallucinations, confusion and fear with regular use. Severe hallucinations
are possible with large doses.

The Boston Globe reported Thursday that healthy subjects run the risk of
flashbacks months after using ketamine.

"If this is what they do to normal (people), God help us with the
cognitively impaired," Adil Shamoo, a University of Maryland bioethicist,
told the newspaper.

But scientists say ketamine can help unlock the mysteries of mental
illness, especially schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease, by giving
researchers insight into the nature of hallucinations and mood disorders.

The experiments began in the early 1990s and ended more than a year ago.