The effects of sub-anaesthetic doses of ketamine on memory, cognitive performance and subjective experience in healthy volunteers

The cognitive and subjective effects of sub-anaesthetic doses of ketamine on healthy volunteers were examined. Twelve healthy volunteers received 25 mg ketamine, 10 mg ketamine and saline placebo, i.m. in a double-blind, Latin square design. A cognitive, perceptual and self-report test battery was administered over 45 min. The order of tests was rotated to control for timing effects. Ketamine (25 mg) significantly affected verbal learning and memory, parallel visual search, some measures of psychomotor performance, measures of arousal, subjective mood ratings and visual perception. Measures of attention and frontal lobe functioning were relatively unaffected. Thus, low doses of ketamine had selective, dose-related effects on memory, perceptual and psychomotor functions. The disruption of memory and perceptual processes may help to explain the unique subjective state induced by ketamine.