Ketamine Treatment Options

The objective of the proposed study is to test if a single IV dose of ketamine (0.5 mg/kg) decreases symptoms of PTSD. Read Less

Ketamine has been shown to have an antidepressant effect when given intravenously in doses of 2mg/kg. Ketamine is used as a standard induction drug during general anesthesia. It is known in this instance to decrease postoperative pain. No one has studied whether or not ketamine when given in doses used during general anesthesia (0.5mg/kg intravenous) has an antidepressant effect on surgical patients who suffer from depression. The study is designed to determine whether or not a small dose of ketamine when given at the induction of anesthesia could have an antidepressant effect on surgical patients with depression. Read Less

This study is designed to evaluate the addition of ketamine to dexmedetomidine as adjunctive therapies of severe alcohol withdrawal in medical ICU patients. Specifically, this study will assess whether the combination of ketamine and dexmedetomidine reduces the doses of conventional agents used for alcohol withdrawal while maintaining patient comfort and safety and will explore if the combination alters the expression of catecholamines in the serum over time. Read Less

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a chronic and disabling anxiety disorder and a leading cause of worldwide disability that presents a significant public health problem. Treatment options are limited and many OCD patients fail to respond completely or quickly to standard treatments, including pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy. At this time, patients who fail to respond to treatment with serotonergic drugs, augmenting antipsychotic agents, and behavioral therapy, have few additional treatment options aside from deep brain stimulation. Therefore, despite advances in current pharmacological and behavioral treatments, and the utility of serotonergic drugs, it is likely that other neurotransmitter systems are involved and that targeting these systems may increase treatment efficacy. Despite little evidence for serotonergic dysfunction in OCD, there is significant evidence that glutamatergic dysregulation may contribute to the development and progression of the disorder. Also, preliminary studies suggest that glutamatergic modulators (i.e. riluzole and d-cycloserine), particularly agents acting at the NMDA receptor (i.e. memantine), may be useful in OCD. The NMDA antagonist, ketamine, has demonstrated rapid effects when delivered as a single intravenous (IV) dose in depressed patients. Therefore, the objective of the current study is to investigate the safety and efficacy of a single dose of IV ketamine in treatment-resistant OCD. Read Less

This is a randomized, single-blind, placebo controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of sub-dissociative dose ketamine versus standard care therapy for acute headache management of in patients presenting to the emergency department with headache as the chief compliant. Read Less

The perianal region is the region around the anus. Administering a pain medication before a surgery starts is called preemptive analgesia. In some studies, this technique has been shown to be an effective way to reduce the pain that a patient experiences in the post-operative timeframe to a greater extent than would be expected simply from the pain medications alone. One theory of why this occurs suggests that the preemptive analgesia desensitizes brain and nerves to pain, thereby decreasing the response to painful stimuli, like surgery when they occur. This leads to a decrease in the amount of narcotic pain medication required after the procedure, which leads to less side effects and a quicker return to normal functioning. As perianal surgeries do not usually include a long stay in the hospital, controlling post-procedure pain is a priority. The use of preemptive analgesia is in other types of surgeries, such as orthopedics, is well established, but as the perianal region has not been well studied, its use is not the standard of care. This type of analgesia uses a combination of medications that are already in use for post-operative and non-operative pain control and administers them orally prior to the patient undergoing general anesthesia. The side effects of the medications are the same as if they had been given after surgery or for non-surgical pain. The concept of preemptive analgesia is established in other types of surgeries and it has solid basic science to support its use. The purpose of this randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled study is to determine if patients undergoing perianal surgeries could benefit from preemptive pain control. The primary outcome will be whether patients experience less post-operative pain. Patient post-operative consumption and latency until use of narcotic pain medication will be the secondary outcomes. The investigators believe that the patients receiving pain medications before their operation will require less pain medication after surgery, with minimal increased risk to the patient. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to determine whether epidural and ketamine infusions are effective in the treatment of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). Read Less

This study compares the efficacy of low dose Ketamine versus Compazine for the control of headache in patients presenting to the Emergency Department. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to compare the effectiveness of the co-administration of intravenous ketamine and propofol to intravenous ketamine as a single agent for procedural sedation in the pediatric emergency department. The investigators hypothesize that patients receiving co-administration of ketamine and propofol will have a lower rate of adverse events, compared to patients receiving ketamine for procedural sedation. Read Less

This study will evaluate the effectiveness of ketamine infusions in the management of acute pain following open or laparoscopic colorectal surgery cases. Half of patients will receive the institutional standard of care and a placebo infusion (no active medication). The other half of patients will receive the institutional standard of care and a ketamine infusion. All subjects and staff will be blinded as to whether they are receiving placebo or ketamine. Read Less

Our previous published research comparing the efficacy of intravenous ketamine to morphine has shown ketamine to provide equivalent relief of moderate to severe acute pain in emergency medicine patients. Secondary analysis of the previous published research has also revealed ketamine to have statistically more side effects. The investigators believe that increasing the time of administration of the ketamine, from a push injection to a drip infusion, will minimize the side effects experienced by recipients of ketamine. Read Less

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of levetiracetam , lacosamide and ketamine treatment of refractory status epilepticus. This will be a randomized, open-label, four-arm pilot study comparing time to cessation of refractory status epilepticus, determined by continuous EEG monitoring, in patients with refractory status epilepticus. Patients with status epilepticus who have been treated with standard dose lorazepam (or midazolam) and ≥ 1000 mg phenytoin with documented levels of ≥20 mg/ml and continue to have clinical status epilepticus for ≥1-24 hours after phenytoin loading will receive intravenously (i.v.) either 4000 mg levetiracetam, 600 mg lacosamide (Group B), 2.5 mg/kg ketamine or phenobarbital 15 mg/kg phenobarbital (Group D) Read Less