HEALTHY SUBJECTS REPORTEDLY USED IN HALLUCINOGEN

BOSTON (AP) -- Researchers trying to find ways to treat schizophrenia gave
more than 100 healthy people a powerful hallucinogen without fully
informing them that the drug could potentially produce psychotic episodes,
The Boston Globe reported today.

The studies involved the drug ketamine, also known as ``Special K'' and
considered a ``date-rape'' drug because of the stupor-like condition it can
cause.

The Globe said the studies, which began in 1994, involved both mentally ill
and healthy people, and participants often were not told they were being
given ketamine specifically to induce conditions similar to schizophrenia.

Ketamine is available by prescription only, and was approved by the Food
and Drug Administration as an anesthetic. Its primary use is as an animal
tranquilizer.

Healthy people given the drug reported feelings of floating, having a radio
in the ear, tearfulness and sad moods and feelings of ``life and death at
the same time,'' the Globe said.

The possibility of long-term harm from drug-induced psychosis is less
likely in healthy people, but there is a possibility of flashbacks months
later, according to the report.

Disclosure is important because there is the possibility of ``hooking
someone'' on the drug, said Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at the University
of Pennsylvania.

Experiments were done primarily at the National Institute of Mental Health
at Bethesda, Md., or facilities financed by the institute, such as medical
schools at Yale University and New York University.

The NIMH's institutional review board approved the studies.

``This is a medicine which is given under close scrutiny for a short-term
basis. There is no repeat, long-term exposure,'' said Dr. Trey Sunderland,
chairman of the review board. As a result, he said, ketamine's street use
is ''not an issue in these studies.''

Sunderland said consent forms mentions that ``you might get an altered
mood, hallucinations. ... The main side effects of the medication are
listed in black and white.''

Dr. John Krystal, a Yale psychiatry professor, said he began using ketamine
because old literature showed it might model symptoms and problems of
schizophrenia and give new insights into treatment.

He said subjects in his early studies were not told that ketamine was used
as a street drug. He said he did not have recent consent forms to show what
participants are told now. But he said, ``People who participate are made
aware that it has effects on mood that may make some people want to use
it.''

Checked-by: Richard Lake