Ketamine Treatment Options in Canada

Compare intramuscular (IM) ketamine to a combination of IM midazolam and haloperidol with regards to the time required for adequate behavioral control, in minutes, in patients presenting to the emergency department with psychomotor agitation and violent behavior. Read Less

Lacerations are one of most common trauma in children presenting to the emergency department (ED). Currently, there are wide variations regarding sedation and analgesia practices when suture are required. Even though topical anesthesia is very useful to reduce pain, it does not obviate the use of pharmacologic agents to decrease stress in anxious children undergoing laceration repairs in the ED. There is a growing interest in the intranasal (IN) route of administration in the pediatric population. It bypasses the first hepatic passage and thus provides medications direct access to the systemic circulation leading to higher and faster serum concentrations than would the oral route. Also, intravenous (IV) cannulation can be avoided reducing the pain associated with it and the need for nursing time and procedure delay. IN fentanyl and midazolam are two agents that can be combined for this procedure, but respiratory depression is a feared adverse effects. Ketamine is the most commonly used IV agent for procedural sedation, and can offer potent analgesia and sedation while maintaining respiratory drive and protective airway reflexes. Few studies have evaluated IN ketamine for procedural sedation. There is a wide range of dosing reported from 3 to 9 mg/kg. This raises the question as what is the lowest possible dosage that can be used to successfully repairs laceration in children with minimal restrain and no adverse events, as described by the Pediatric Emergency Research Canada (PERC)/ Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) consensus. Read Less

The investigators hypothesize that intra-nasal ketamine, for analgesia of patients with moderate to severe pain in an alpine setting, will provide a clinically significant reduction in pain and provide an effective and feasible alternative to intravenous opioids. The investigators wish to know: 1. Is our study protocol feasible to study INK in a mountain, prehospital care environment? 2. What estimate can be made of recruitment rates? 3. Does studying the use of INK interfere with or delay care at Whistler/Blackcomb? 4. Is intra-nasal ketamine an effective and safe method for controlling pain in our study population and setting? 5. Does intranasal ketamine provide a clinically significant reduction in pain or do patients require additional IV narcotics for extraction? 6. Are there any significant changes in vital signs after administration of intra-nasal ketamine 7. Does the use of intra-nasal ketamine reduce time of patient extraction and transport in the alpine pre-hospital setting? 8. Are there any long term sequelae of INK at one week? Read Less

Randomized, controlled, double-blind pilot study evaluating the effect of an intraoperative infusion of intravenous Ketamine on the quantity of opioid consumed postoperatively in coronary artery bypass surgery patients receiving a median sternotomy. Read Less

Based on the pharmacological class of rapastinel, this study will be conducted to evaluate the participant's driving performance after single IV doses of rapastinel as compared with single oral doses of alprazolam, a benzodiazepine that demonstrates driving impairment, and placebo in healthy participants. Read Less

Closed-loop control of anesthesia involves using feedback from a measure of clinical effect to continuously adjust drug infusion rates. As a result, anesthetic drugs are delivered at a variable rate that is frequently personalized to each individual patient. The aim is to provide greater stability at an optimal depth of anesthesia, reducing the occurrence of under- or overdosing, with the goal of ultimately improving patient outcomes. The purpose of this randomized, controlled equivalence trial is to compare controller performance during closed-loop controlled induction and maintenance of total intravenous anesthesia, using iControl system, with the addition of a low (analgesic) dose of ketamine versus saline control. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to examine the dose-response relationship of ketamine in combination with propofol. Read Less

Acute painful conditions make-up a large proportion of pre-hospital transports in British Columbia (BC) yet Basic Life Support (BLS) paramedics have limited options to provide analgesia and therefore adequate and timely pain relief is often significantly delayed. Inhaled nitrous oxide is commonly used as a pre-hospital analgesic and is considered "usual care" for pre-hospital providers in BC, but its utility in severe pain is uncertain. Moreover, nitrous oxide is limited in its effectiveness by a short duration of action, nausea, vomiting, and the necessity for patient cooperation. IN Ketamine has been shown to provide rapid, easily-administered, and well-tolerated analgesia in many settings. The investigators believe that the addition of IN ketamine to usual care with nitrous oxide inhalation for adults experiencing moderate to severe intensity acute pain in the pre-hospital setting will result in improved pain severity, improved patient-reported comfort, and improved patient satisfaction. Read Less

The study will evaluate the post-operative morphine-sparing effect, pain reduction, and side effects of a continuous ketamine infusion after tonsillectomy in pediatric patients. Read Less

This study will examine the effectiveness of intranasal (IN) ketamine compared to standard intravenous (IV) ketamine administration for simple reductions of orthopaedic injuries in the paediatric population. The aim is to assess if IN administration is equivalent to the current standard of care, IV. The population to be studied is children 5-17 years of age who require a simple orthopaedic reduction. Following a double dummy approach to overcome the difficulty in masking interventions, each participant will recieve both IV and IN interventions, only one of which will be the real drug. Procedural conscious sedation (PCS) will be assessed using the University of Michigan Sedation Scale (UMSS). Read Less

Depression carries the largest burden of all medical disorders in middle to high income countries, as determined by the World Health Organization. Despite many antidepressant strategies, only a third of patients get well after their first treatment and a third remain ill after several treatments. Moreover, antidepressant treatments all have a delayed action ranging up to several weeks. Ketamine (KET) has been used for decades as a sedative and anesthetic. In treatment-resistant depressed patients(TRD), an intravenous dose much lower than necessary for anesthesia may produce a robust antidepressant effect and may even abolish suicidal thoughts within hours, peaking within 24 hours. But, its antidepressant effect generally lasts only days.Previous studies examining KET in TRD have been critiqued for lack of an effective placebo measure due to brief perceptual experiences associated with KET. Thus, the current study compares KET against a short-acting sedative. The phases of this study compare response to a single KET injection to 6 injections over 2 weeks. Next, KET responders are given 1 injection a week for 3 weeks of either KET or the sedative agent to determine if beneficial effects of KET are maintained, and to assess duration of its benefits after repeated administration. The genetic profile of patients for a substance promoting contacts between cells and brain will be determined to investigate if response to KET could be predicted with that blood test. This substance, as well as several chemicals that produce inflammation, will also be measured in the blood to investigate their role in the effect of KET. Patients will receive, in total, no more than the equivalent of two to three anesthetic dose of KET. Results from this study will help establish the beneficial effects of a single KET injection as a rapid intervention for major depression, and to investigate the possibility of obtaining a prolonged antidepressant effect with repeated injections. Read Less

To determine the effect of ketamine, compared to propofol, when used an an anesthetic agent for electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). We hypothesize that ketamine, compared to propofol, will improve the the symptoms of MDD when used as the anesthetic agent to facilitate ECT. Additionally, we hypothesize the dissociative and cardiovascular effects of ketamine will be minimal. Read Less