Ketamine addiction making teenagers wet the bed, says UK’s first specialist clinic | Health

Children are using incontinence pads and urinating in buckets next to their beds at night due to bladder problems caused by ketamine addiction, according to the first specialist NHS clinic to deal with the problem.

Doctors at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool have opened the UK’s first ketamine clinic for young people in response to a surge in urological problems linked to addiction to the drug.

“Some of our patients start wetting the bed or find that going to the toilet at night is actually too difficult, so they choose either incontinence products or a bucket by the bed,” said Harriet Corbett, consultant pediatric urologist at the clinic.

“I hate to say it, but a lot of them get to the point where they don’t care where they go, because the need to go outweighs their desire to find somewhere private. And I suspect more of them are incontinent than want to tell us.”

Corbett said most of their patients are between 14 and 15 years old, and many of them report that they have been using ketamine for one or two years, suggesting that some are taking the drug at age 12.

Excessive consumption of this medication can cause problems because ketamine and its breakdown products remain in the bladder for a long time, where they can damage the mucosa and muscle tissue.

This causes inflammation and a decrease in the size of the bladder, with the main symptom being an urgent need to urinate frequently. In extreme cases, this can lead to bladder removal or kidney problems.

“We need to scream loud and clear about this, because if we can encourage them to stop using, it will potentially save them from a miserable life of medical interventions,” Corbett said. “There’s a point where you can’t recover.”

There is still little research into the exact number of young people using ketamine in the UK.

A 2023 NHS England survey of more than 13,000 pupils from 185 schools found that 0.9% of 15-year-olds had used ketamine, up from 0.4% in 2013, and 11% had been offered it. But health professionals fear the numbers may be higher than the data shows.

Professor Rachel Isba, a consultant in pediatric public health medicine who runs the clinic alongside Corbett, said: “There are probably many other children and young people who have non-specific bladder symptoms or abdominal pain, which may be due to their ketamine use, but you need someone to connect the dots.

“We need to ask specific questions about ketamine use, but the vast majority of GPs and pediatricians in the UK will never have seen a child who has used ketamine.”

The two men created the clinic after what started as a “slow trickle” of cases in 2023, a “handful” in 2024, then an increasing number in 2025.

Corbett said: “The numbers were going up and I was starting to think, wow, this could be a problem. What are we going to do? It’s on everyone’s radar now because it’s snowballed; it’s gotten a little crazy.”

The clinic combines Corbett’s expertise in treating bladder problems in children with Isba’s knowledge in combating addiction and referring young people to rehabilitation services.

The reasons for the increase in ketamine use are also unclear. Isba said young people can take the drug socially, but become addicted and start using it at home, in their bedroom. Their patients may have experienced childhood trauma, and many also suffer from some form of neurodivergence, particularly ADHD.

“What the kids tell us is: ket is great, it’s a break from your busy brain or just a little rest,” Isba said. “They want to belong. So they feel like if they don’t participate, they won’t be able to do it. We’ve heard stories of young people who have completely changed the way they go about their day in order to avoid being exposed to other people’s ketamine use.”

Another emerging problem is that many children begin using ketamine to relieve pain caused by their bladder problems. Corbett said: “When they have severe bladder pain, the only pain relief they find helpful is ketamine. So they go into a very unpleasant downward spiral.”