By Ketamine News

“… You likely already know that ketamine is a powerful anesthetic and pain reliever — when administered via intravenous infusion. Other methods of administration, like ketamine pills or intramuscular infusion, have been attempted with varying degrees of success.

One of the more popular variants of ketamine, esketamine (brand name Spravato) was approved by the FDA for use in treating depression in some patients in early 2019. It signaled an exciting shift in the industry, perhaps indicating ketamine could one day be more readily available for treatment of nonemergency conditions.

“I’m an emergency doctor. I’ve worked in many ERs, and I’ve faced the opioid epidemic over the last 15 years. When trying to find a pain medication that is powerful, we just don’t have many options. We have NSAIDs, but they’re limited in what they do. Opiates have a whole host of other problems.

Ketamine is a great option and very popular. It’s a dissociative anesthetic used for moderate sedation. In low doses — subdissociative doses — it’s used for pain medications, which can reduce the number of opioids used.”