Ketamine Safe and Effective for Chronic Pain, Study Finds

CLEVELAND - A new study from Cleveland Clinic found the drug ketamine can be a safe and effective treatment option for people with chronic pain. 

For those unfamiliar, ketamine is typically used as an anesthetic in surgery. 

“It is currently not approved by the FDA for the use of chronic pain infusions, but interestingly enough, despite it being invented 50 years ago, for the last 40 years, we have been using it on and off for chronic pain. And what we tried to do here with this study is show how effective it can be and safe,” explained Pavan Tanka, MD, pain medicine specialist at Cleveland Clinic.

Dr. Tankha led the study, which looked at data from more than one thousand people with chronic pain. 

He said they decided to research ketamine as a treatment option since other medications, injections and surgeries don’t always work. 

Ultimately, people who received low-dose ketamine infusions reported an improvement in their chronic pain and quality of life. 

Dr. Tankha said while the results are promising, there is more research that needs to be done before FDA approval. 

“The other type of study, which we would need for FDA approval, is a randomized controlled trial where we use blinding and patients don’t know what treatment they’re getting. And we look forward rather than backwards on the data. So, we’re hoping that this study shows that one, getting ketamine is safe, two it’s effective and three, this should be studied in a prospective manner to make this available to more patients,” said Dr. Tankha.

No serious adverse effects were reported during the study.