Pain Medicine, AAPM’s official journal, recently published a new virtual issue on ketamine. The issue is freely available and includes a collection of preliminary studies, surveys, pragmatic and systematic reviews, and consensus reports that have been published on the topic in the past several years in Pain Medicine.
An editorial titled “Ketamine Infusion: The Wild Wild West (and East)” authored by Pain Medicine Senior Associate Editor R. Norman Harden, MD introduces the issue.
“Low-dose ketamine produces analgesia and reportedly modulates central sensitization and hyperalgesia of various etiologies. There is weak to moderate evidence suggesting that ketamine may prove useful for certain chronic neuropathic pain conditions, particularly complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS),” says Dr. Harden in his editorial. “In the context of the opioid “crisis” and, unfortunately, in the absence of good evidence, ketamine is being used increasingly in infusion clinics to manage CRPS and other sorts of neuropathic pain. Understandably, this is driven by the desperation of both patients and clinicians searching for answers and relief in this terrible disease. There is some evidence for its effectiveness but no standard protocols, validated guidelines, or randomized controlled trials.”
This Pain Medicine virtual issue is intended to spur more and better research on ketamine by offering open access to past journal articles.