Clinical and sensorimotor gating effects of ketamine in normals.
Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology July 1, 2001 E J Duncan, S H Madonick, A Parwani et al.
Ketamine, a drug that blocks NMDA receptors, produces schizophrenia-like symptoms in healthy people but does not disrupt sensory gating in the same way schizophrenia does. In a randomized double-blind crossover study, 16 healthy men received a 60-minute infusion of either ketamine (0.5 mg/kg) or saline. Ketamine caused robust dissociative and negative symptoms, but it did not impair prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the startle reflex; instead, it significantly enhanced PPI in the first block. These results indicate that ketamine's clinical effects are not coupled with the PPI disruption seen in schizophrenia.