Ketamine Treatment Options in Missouri

Introduction Numerous drugs and combinations of drugs are used for procedural sedation and analgesia (PSA) in Emergency Departments, including propofol, ketamine, benzodiazepines, narcotics, barbiturates, and others, but propofol has gained popularity despite its potential to cause cardiac and respiratory depression. Obviously the optimal agent or combination of agents has not been identified. There are reasons to believe that a combination of ketamine and propofol may have advantages over other agents/combinations. These include better hemodynamic stability at equal depth of anesthesia with a combination of ketamine/propofol than with propofol alone, less respiratory depression with the combination in comparison to propofol alone, and preservation of respiratory drive with the combination. There is one study of ketamine/propofol in Emergency Department (ED) procedural sedation which demonstrated the safety and effectiveness of the combination, but did not compare it to any other agents or combinations. The investigators designed a randomized, placebo controlled study to compare propofol to propofol and ketamine for adequacy of sedation and respiratory depression in Emergency Department procedural sedation and analgesia. The investigators hypothesis was that the combination of propofol/ketamine would produce better sedation and/or less respiratory depression than propofol alone. Methods Study design The investigators conducted a randomized, prospective, double-blinded study of all patients receiving procedural sedation. From April 2007 until July 2009 in the ED of a 274 bed university teaching hospital. The study was approved by the University of Missouri's Institutional Review Board and informed consent was obtained from all participants. Read Less

This pilot study will assess the safety and feasibility of intravenous (IV) ketamine in older adults with Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD). In addition, this study will develop and utilize innovative methodological approaches to demonstrate the feasibility of precision medicine and mobile health approaches in depression treatment. Read Less

The investigators plan to randomise participants to receive ketamine or placebo control subcutaneously or by 40-minute intravenous infusions and will follow them up for 42 days to assess the incidence of postpartum depression. This feasibility pilot study is designed to explore the adequacy of the study procedures and tolerability of the interventions. Read Less

This study is geared toward characterizing the recovery of brain activity and cognitive function following treatments of electroconvulsive therapy and ketamine general anesthesia. Read Less

Opioid pain medications such as morphine and dilaudid are commonly used in emergency departments to treat pain in patients. Physicians are familiar with the side effects of these medications; the most concerning of which is slowing or stopping a patient's breathing, as well as dangerously lowering their blood pressure. An alternative medication is ketamine. This medication is also commonly used in the emergency department, although it is typically used to help sedate patients for uncomfortable procedures. Ketamine has also been used for pain control, but in a much lower dosage that does not sedate patients. When used for analgesia, it has typically been administered in combination with opioid pain medications. To date, there is no study that looks at the effectiveness and safety of using a low dose ketamine alone in comparison to the use of morphine. The purpose of this study is to measure how well low-dose ketamine treats pain compared to morphine and to look at how often serious side effects are seen with each medication. Read Less

The purpose of the study is to find the dose of rapidly administered ketamine in 3 different pediatric age groups (2-5, 6-11 and 12-17) for abscess drainage and fracture reduction. Ketamine is the most common drug administered to children to facilitate painful procedures in the emergency setting because it achieves potent sedation, pain relief and amnesia with minimal adverse cardiopulmonary effects.(1-5) However, the 1-2 hour recovery period (1,6) associated with standard ketamine administration guidelines(7) strains work flow because it requires bedside one-on-one nurse monitoring in a treatment room, tying up these limited and valuable resources. Consequently, a combination of two other drugs, propofol + fentanyl (P/F), with recovery of 20-30 minutes, is rapidly gaining popularity for procedural sedation despite more frequent respiratory depression, apnea and hypotension caused by this technique.(2,4,8,9) The investigators believe recovery associated with our novel method for administering ketamine is significantly shorter than with the standard larger dose more slowly administered ketamine technique(7). Through the investigators clinical experience, the investigators have found rapid infusion of smaller than standard doses of ketamine safely achieves the drug's sedative effect, with the benefit of more rapid recovery due to the use of a smaller dose. However, this novel technique challenges published beliefs that time of recovery from ketamine sedation does not differ significantly with the dose administered, within the usual dose ranges, and that rapid infusion may cause respiratory depression, similar to that seen with other classes of sedative-analgesic drugs.(7,10) the investigators believe the slow infusion recommended by standard guidelines(7) requires a larger ketamine dose necessary to achieve effective sedation, and, consequently, prolongs recovery. It is the prolonged recovery that has prompted increased use of other less safe but briefer sedatives, such as propofol/fentanyl. By demonstrating patients recover rapidly with new ketamine technique, without increased adverse cardiopulmonary effects, the investigators will provide clinicians with an important new method for ketamine procedural sedation. The investigators believe clinicians will prefer more rapid recovery ketamine technique because it is safer and reduces pain and distress better than the propofol/fentanyl combination for sedation. The investigators complete proposal requires two steps. In Step One, this proposal, the investigators will determine the minimum effective dose of rapidly infused ketamine that achieves deep sedation for at least 5 minutes in 95% of children (ED95). Two groups of patients will be studied: one group is patients undergoing abscess incision and drainage and the other group is patients undergoing fracture reduction in our Emergency Department. The investigators believe that the ED95 is different for both the groups as the severity of pain is different. The investigators will compare the safety and recovery times to published standard ketamine techniques. In the following study, Step Two, the investigators will compare this novel technique, in a blinded randomized trial using the ED95 ketamine dose determined in Step One to the standard ketamine technique to determine if the novel technique results in significantly shorter recovery without an increase in the frequency of adverse effects. The study the investigators are proposing in this submission is Step One only. Read Less

Delirium is a medical term or condition that includes a temporary inability to focus attention and to think clearly. Delirium occurs commonly (10% to 70%) in patients older than 60 undergoing large surgeries. The purpose of this study is to test rigorously whether a drug called ketamine can decrease the chance that patients will experience delirium after their surgery. The investigators are also testing whether ketamine decreases postoperative pain, postoperative opioid consumption, postoperative nausea and vomiting, ICU and hospital length of stay, and adverse outcomes (e.g. hallucinations and nightmares). Read Less

This research study will determine if genetic variation in CYP2B6 affects how the body metabolizes ketamine. Read Less

Ketamine, an FDA approved anesthetic agent, is becoming the sedative/analgesic of choice for emergency sedation in children because it causes deep sedation with minimal respiratory depression in comparison to other available agents. However, emergence reactions are an important adverse effect of ketamine, characterized by transient changes in cognitive function, dissociation and mild schizophrenia-like symptoms. These cognitive and behavioral effects are dose-dependently induced by ketamine and other antagonists of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptor. NMDA receptor hypofunction can disinhibit excitatory (cholinergic/glutamatergic) projections in key areas of the brain, and this has been proposed to explain key features of schizophrenia. Several treatments that block excessive excitatory transmitter release have also been shown to prevent cognitive and behavioral effects of ketamine-induced NMDA receptor hypofunction in humans. Alpha-2 adrenergic agonists, which can presynaptically inhibit acetylcholine release, can prevent mild ketamine-induced behavioral and cognitive symptoms in healthy human adults. However, this prevention strategy has not been evaluated in children. Children currently receive clinically-indicated treatment with the NMDA antagonist, ketamine, and this age group is an important target for pharmacological strategies aimed at the prevention of schizophrenia. This application proposes a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial to test the safety and effectiveness of dexmedetomidine, an FDA approved alpha-2 adrenergic agonist, in preventing ketamine-induced mental symptoms in children. Planned primary analyses will evaluate effects of the hypothesized prevention treatment on clinical and cognitive variables using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The proposed experiments are relevant to future prevention trials for individuals at risk for schizophrenia, and to preventing adverse effects of NMDA antagonist anesthetic agents (ketamine, nitrous oxide). Read Less

This study is a prospective, double-blind, randomized comparison study of different anesthesia methods in rhytidoplasty surgery. The study is designed to determine whether post-operative side-effect profiles in patients undergoing elective cosmetic facelift surgery can be decreased through the use of propofol/ketamine anesthesia with bispectral monitoring (PKA-BIS) rather than general anesthesia, without increasing intra-operative time, side-effect profiles, or patient recall. Approximately 30 subjects undergoing facelift surgery performed by the principal investigator will participate. Read Less