Decreasing brain activity caused by acute administration of ketamine and alcohol - A randomized, controlled, observer-blinded experimental study.
Frontiers in pharmacology January 1, 2024 Luan Oliveira Ferreira, Esther Padilha da Silveira, Clarissa A Paz et al.
Ketamine, increasingly used illicitly alongside alcohol, alters brain activity in ways that depend on dose. In late-adolescent male rats, ketamine alone increased delta, theta, beta, and gamma brainwaves, most strongly at 30 mg/kg, while reducing alpha waves. Alcohol alone reduced all brainwaves. Combined, ketamine enhanced alcohol's depressant effect on alpha waves at all doses. A low ketamine dose (10 mg/kg) boosted alcohol's reduction of theta and beta waves, whereas a high dose (30 mg/kg) produced neuronal hyperexcitability, increasing delta, theta, beta, and gamma bandpower. The intermediate dose (20 mg/kg) reversed alcohol-induced reductions in theta and gamma waves.