Ketamine Detection Testing

Testing | Specimens | Requirements 

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Ketamine Overview

Generic Name: ketamine [ KET-a-meen]

Brand Name: Ketalar

Street Name: Cat Tranquilizer, Cat Valium, Jet K, Kit Kat, Purple, Special K, Super Acid, Super K, and Vitamin K

Drug Class: General anesthetic

What is Ketamine?

Paraphrased from the DEA Fact Sheet:

“Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic with hallucinogenic effects. It distorts sight and sound perception, causing users to feel disconnected and lose control. It is known as a “dissociative anesthetic hallucinogen” because it detaches patients from pain and their surroundings.

Ketamine can induce sedation, immobility, pain relief, and amnesia. However, it is often misused for its dissociative and hallucinogenic properties.

Ketamine is approved for medical use as an injectable, short-acting anesthetic in humans and animals. It is also available as esketamine (Spravato®), a nasal spray used to treat treatment-resistant depression.”

Learn more by visiting the DEA Fact Sheets. 

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Specimen Requirements

Specimen: Hair | Fingernail | Urine 

Specimen Container: Tamper-evident sealed envelope or tamper-evident sealed over specimen cup

Storage Conditions: Specimen specific

Specimen Collections:  Hair Collection Instructions | Fingernail Collection Instructions | Urine Collection Instructions

Turnaround Time: Generally, the standard turnaround time for reporting negative screening test results is the next business day, with an additional 1-2 business days for specimens that require confirmatory testing. Turnaround time begins from receipt of the valid specimen –accompanied by a properly documented valid order– into the laboratory. Some tests require additional time to process and will fall outside the standard turnaround time window.

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Metabolites

Ketamine is metabolized by N-demethylation to the active metabolite norketamine.

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Learn More

Read more about ketamine by following the link to our blog article; Ketamine: Current and Future Use.

Ketamine in Hair Testing

Ketamine in Fingernail Testing

Ketamine in Urine Testing