Ketamine addiction making teenagers wet the bed, says UK’s first specialist clinic
Children are using incontinence pads and urinating in buckets next to their bed at night due to bladder problems caused by ketamine addiction, according to the first specialist NHS clinic dealing with the issue.Medics at Alder Hey children’s hospital in Liverpool have opened the first ketamine clinic for young people in the UK in response to a surge in urology problems linked to addiction of the drug.“Some of our patients start wetting the bed or find going to the bathroom at night is actually too hard, so they’ll either choose incontinence products or a bucket by the bed,” said Harriet Corbett, a consultant paediatric urologist at the clinic.“I hate to say it, but a lot of them get to the point where they’re not fussed about where they go, because the need to go overrides their desire to find somewhere private.And I suspect more of them are incontinent than are willing to tell us.
”Corbett said most of their patients were 14 to 15, with many reporting they had been using ketamine for one or two years, suggesting some are taking up the drug at 12,Excessive use of the drug can cause problems as ketamine and its breakdown products sit in the bladder for a long time, where they can damage the lining and muscle tissue,This causes inflammation and the bladder to decrease in size, with the main symptom being an urgent need to urinate frequently,In extreme cases it can lead to the bladder needing to be removed or to kidney problems,“We need to shout loudly about this because if we can encourage them to stop using, that will potentially save themselves a miserable life of medical interventions,” said Corbett.
“There is a point at which you can’t recover.”There is still little research on exactly how many young people are using ketamine in the UK.A 2023 NHS England survey of more than 13,000 students in 185 schools found that 0.9% of 15‑year‑olds had used ketamine, up from 0.4% in 2013, and 11% had been offered the drug.
But medical professionals fear numbers could be higher than the data shows.Prof Rachel Isba, a consultant in paediatric public health medicine who runs the clinic alongside Corbett, said: “There are probably many other children and young people out there who have bladder symptoms, or non-specific tummy pain, which may be due to their ketamine use but you need somebody to make the connection.“We need to be specifically asking about ketamine use, but the vast majority of GPs and paediatricians in the UK will never have seen a child who’s used ketamine.”The pair set up the clinic after what started as a “slow trickle” of cases in 2023, a “handful” in 2024 and then an escalating number in 2025.Corbett said: “The numbers were going up and I was beginning 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 gone a bit crazy.”The clinic combines Corbett’s expertise in dealing with bladder problems in children with Isba’s knowledge of tackling addiction and referring young people to rehabilitation services.The reasons behind the surge in ketamine use are also unclear.Isba said young people might take the drug socially but become addicted and start doing it at home in their bedroom.Their patients may have experienced childhood trauma, and many also have some form of neurodivergence, particularly ADHD.
“What we hear from the kids is: ket is great, it’s a break from your busy brain or just a bit of a rest,” said Isba.“They want to belong.So they feel if they don’t participate, they won’t be able to.We’ve heard stories of young people who’ve changed the entire way they go about their day in order to avoid being exposed to other people’s ketamine use.”Another emerging issue is that many children are starting to use ketamine to ease the pain caused by their bladder problems.
Corbett said: “When they get bad bladder pain, for some of the only pain relief they find that is helpful is ketamine.So they get into a very nasty downward spiral.”
Javier Bardem and Tilda Swinton among those to condemn Berlinale’s ‘silence’ on Gaza
More than 80 current and former participants of the Berlinale, including Javier Bardem, Tilda Swinton and Adam McKay have signed an open letter condemning the festival’s “silence” on Gaza.It comes after the film festival was swept up in what it called a “media storm” over the alleged sidelining of political discourse at the event.The row was triggered by a remark from the jury president, Wim Wenders, in the opening press conference that film-makers “should stay out of politics” in response to questions related to the Israel-Gaza conflict and the German government’s support for Israel.A backlash, including the withdrawal of Indian author Arundhati Roy from the event, led to festival director, Tricia Tuttle, issuing a statement defending film-makers and actors who were increasingly being pressed on political and societal issues during press conferences.“Artists are free to exercise their right of free speech in whatever way they choose,” Tuttle said
Colbert on Kristi Noem: ‘Everyone can’t wait to tell a reporter how awful you are’
With Seth Meyers and Jimmy Kimmel off air for the Presidents’ Day holiday, Stephen Colbert focused his monologue on a Kristi Noem scandal and Maha’s new suggested way to enjoy vegetables.On Monday night’s Late Show, Colbert returned after a week off the air to focus on the Wall Street Journal’s recent exposé of Kristi Noem, the US homeland security secretary. The host described the piece as “the kind of article that gets published only if everyone who works for you can’t wait to tell a reporter just how awful you are”.The Journal exposé claims that Noem is jealous of the border czar, Tom Homan, and monitors her media appearances to make sure that she is on TV more than he is. The article also reports that Noem’s relationship with the Trump aide Corey Lewandowski is more than professional, and the pair are in a romantic relationship despite both being married with children
Barbican arts director to leave, months after revealing creative vision for centre
Devyani Saltzman is leaving the Barbican as the arts institution undergoes another significant leadership change just a few weeks after its new CEO joined.The shock departure of Saltzman, who became director of arts and participation at the Barbican in February 2024, comes months after she unveiled a five-year creative vision for the venue.Saltzman was named recently as one of the 40 most influential women working in the arts in the UK, and was described as the “driving force behind the organisation”.The Barbican refused to confirm the exit, with a spokesperson telling the Guardian it would be “unable to comment on individual staffing matters”.It is unclear when Saltzman will leave the organisation and there are no plans to replace her
British Museum removes word ‘Palestine’ from some displays
The British Museum has removed the word “Palestine” from some of its displays, saying the term was used inaccurately and is no longer historically neutral.Maps and information panels in the museum’s ancient Middle East galleries had referred to the eastern Mediterranean coast as Palestine, with some people described as being “of Palestinian descent”.Concerns were recently raised by UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLIF), a voluntary group of solicitors, about references to “Palestine” in displays covering the ancient Levant and Egypt, which risked “obscuring the history of Israel and the Jewish people”.In a letter to the museum’s director, Nicholas Cullinan, the group wrote: “Applying a single name – Palestine – retrospectively to the entire region, across thousands of years, erases historical changes and creates a false impression of continuity.“It also has the compounding effect of erasing the kingdoms of Israel and of Judea, which emerged from around 1,000BC, and of reframing the origins of the Israelites and Jewish people as erroneously stemming from Palestine
My cultural awakening: ‘Thirteen influenced my hedonistic youth, until a psychotic episode ended it’
My teenage self was shy and miserable, before a coming-of-age film unleashed an adolescence of drink, sex and drugs. It was a years-long party that eventually came crashing downAt 13, what felt like almost overnight, I turned from a happy, musical-theatre-loving child into a sad, lonely teenager. Things I had cared about only yesterday were suddenly irrelevant, as I realised that nothing and no one mattered, least of all me. It’s an angst that adults often find difficult to remember or understand; as the famous line from The Virgin Suicides goes: “Obviously, Doctor, you’ve never been a 13-year-old girl.”Going to an all-girls Catholic school, I didn’t even really know that sex, drugs and alcohol existed, or that they had currency, until I watched Thirteen for the first time at 14, after seeing a still on Pinterest
The Guide #230: From Oasis to Bowie, your stories of seeing pre-stardom acts
From the Beatles slogging through mammoth sets for jeering sailors in Hamburg basement bars, to Ed Sheeran playing just about every open mic night in the south of England, even the biggest acts had to start small. So when we asked Guide readers to share their memories of seeing now-massive bands and artists before they were famous, it was inevitable we’d get some great tales. So much so, in fact, that we’ve decided to devote the main chunk of this week’s Guide to your pre-fame gig recollections. We’ve also asked Guardian music writers – seasoned veterans of seeking out the next big thing – to share a few of their memories. Read on for tales of Kurt Cobain in Yorkshire, Playboi Carti’s set in an east London snooker club and an ill-advised David Bowie mime performance …PulpIn 1991, I was a young music writer starting out when I came across a pre-fame Pulp (pictured above) at a short-lived event called Piece Hall Live in Halifax
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