Understanding Ketamine as a Drug

Understanding

Ketamine as a Drug

Drug development & Historical aspects

Around the year 1970, that is, a little over half a century ago, ketamine was introduced as an anesthetic drug with two important properties:

It did not suppress cardiovascular functioning. That is, heart rate and blood pressure did not drop after the drug was administered; if anything, heart rate and blood pressure showed modest increase.

It did not suppress respiratory functioning. That is, patients who received ketamine did not experienced slowed breathing; rather, the rate of breathing remained normal.

Ketamine was therefore regarded as a safe anesthetic agent.

Many treatments are used for more than one kind of illness. For example, aspirin is used to reduce pain and inflammation, but is also used to prevent blood clots in arteries supplying blood to the heart and brain. In like manner, ketamine has been used for more than one purpose.

Here is a list of situations and conditions for which ketamine has been used and for which a research base is available:

Anesthesia
Pain
Sedation
Agitation and
aggression
Psychiatric
disorders

Ketamine is used as an anesthetic agent.

Ketamine has been used to reduce the severity of acute as well as chronic pain. As examples, ketamine has been used to reduce post-surgical pain, or pain associated with injury in patients brought for emergency care, to pain associated with cancer.

Ketamine has been used to sedate patients, such as children who require dental care, or children who are undergoing MRI scans and who need to lie motionless in the scanner.

Ketamine has been used to calm agitated and aggressive patients who are being brought to the hospital by ambulance staff, or agitated and aggressive patients who are seen in emergency care.

Ketamine has been used to treat patients with acute and chronic depression, including patients who have not responded to standard antidepressant treatments.

Noteworthy points

In all of the above situations, ketamine has been used in children as well as in adults.

For anesthesia, clinical and research experience with ketamine spans five decades. For the other indications, clinical and research experience spans two or more decades.

There are many medical and psychiatric conditions for which the benefits of ketamine are presently unclear. These include anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders, alcohol use disorders, and asthma.

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