Ketamine Treatment Options

To evaluate whether PF-02545920 reduces the effects of ketamine on brain activation during causal learning as measured by fMRI compared to placebo in healthy human subjects, and to evaluate whether behavioral measures of abnormal causal learning under ketamine are reduced by treatment with PF 02545920. Read Less

Pain control after cesarean delivery is associated with improved breastfeeding and infant rooming-in times. In addition, inadequate analgesia leads to elevated plasma catecholamine concentrations, which negatively affect every organ system. There is growing evidence that ketamine, N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist, is efficacious when used as an adjuvant in postoperative pain control. A 2006 Cochrane Collaboration systemic review and meta-analysis concluded, "Ketamine in subanesthetic doses....is effective in reducing morphine requirements in the first 24 hours after surgery." Ketamine's prolonged analgesic effect, despite its short half-life and its use in low doses, is theorized to be due to blockade of spinal cord central sensitization. Central sensitization is a phenomenon whereby repeated painful stimulus leads to more severe pain perception over time despite no change in the intensity of the painful stimulus.Ketamine may also prevent the development of acute opioid tolerance. Ketamine's analgesic effects have also demonstrated in the obstetric population. Post-cesarean delivery morphine requirements in women who received ketamine as part of a general anesthesia technique were decreased. Similary, low-dose ketamine in conjunction with bupivacaine-only spinal anesthesia reduced postoperative analgesic requirements compared to bupivacaine-only spinal anesthesia and bupivacaine-fentanyl spinal anesthesia. In the United States, healthy women scheduled for elective cesarean delivery commonly receive spinal anesthesia with bupivacaine-fentanyl-morphine. To our knowledge, IV ketamine has not been studied as an adjuvant to this regimen in the analgesic management in post-cesarean delivery patients. Multimodal therapy for postoperative pain control is widely practiced due to the advantage it provides in blocking multiple pain pathways while minimizing side effects of each individual pain medication. We hypothesize that low dose intravenous ketamine will improve multi-modal post-cesarean analgesia compared to placebo. The purpose of this study is to evaluate this hypothesis and study the possible side effects of this regimen in combination with bupivacaine-fentanyl-morphine spinal anesthesia. Read Less

Procedures performed under sedation have the same severity in regards to morbidity and mortality as procedures performed under general anesthesia1. The demand for anesthesia care outside the operating room has increased tremendously and it poses, according to a closed claim analysis, major risks to patients . Both closed claim analysis identified respiratory depression due to oversedation as the main risk to patients undergoing procedures under sedation. The major problem is that hypoventilation is only detected at very late stages in patients receiving supplemental oxygen. Besides the respiratory effects of hypoventilation, hypercapnia can also lead to hypertension, tachycardia, cardiac arrhythmias and seizures. The incidence of anesthetized patients with obstructive sleep apnea has increased substantially over the last years along with the current national obesity epidemic. These patients are at increased risk of hypoventilation when exposed to anesthetic drugs. The context of the massive increase in procedural sedation and the extremely high prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea poses major respiratory risks to patients and it may, in a near future, increase malpractice claims to anesthesiologists. The development of safer anesthesia regimen for sedation are, therefore, needed. The establishment of safer anesthetics regimen for sedation is in direct relationship with the anesthesia patient safety foundation priorities. It addresses peri-anesthetic safety problems for healthy patient's. It can also be broadly applicable and easily implemented into daily clinical care. Ketamine has an established effect on analgesia but the effects of ketamine on ventilation have not been clearly defined. The lack of validated and sensitive instruments to evaluate the effects of ketamine on ventilation is an important reason for the conflicting results.The investigators have demonstrated that the transcutaneous carbon dioxide monitor is accurate in detecting hypoventilation in patients undergoing deep sedation. Animal data suggest that when added to propofol in a sedation regimen, ketamine decreased hypoventilation when compared to propofol alone. It is unknown if ketamine added to a commonly used sedative agent (propofol) can decrease the incidence and severity of hypoventilation in patients undergoing deep sedation. It is also unknown if the effect of ketamine on ventilation are different in patients with and without obstructive sleep apnea. The investigators hypothesized that patients receiving ketamine and propofol will develop less intraoperative hypoventilation than patients receiving propofol alone. The investigators also hypothesized that this effect will be even greater in patients with obstructive sleep apnea than patients without obstructive sleep apnea. Significance: Respiratory depression due to oversedation was identified twice as the major factor responsible for claims related to anesthesia. The high prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea combined with more complex procedures done in outpatient settings can increase physical risks to patients and liability cases to anesthesiologists. The main goal of this project is to establish the effect of ketamine in preventing respiratory depression to patients undergoing procedures under sedation. If the investigators confirm the their hypothesis , their findings can be valuable not only to anesthesiologist but also to other specialties ( Emergency medicine, gastroenterologists, cardiologists, radiologists) that frequently performed procedural sedation. The research questions is;does ketamine prevent hypoventilation during deep sedation? The hypotheses is; ketamine will prevent hypoventilation during sedation cases. Read Less

The purpose of this Phase 1 study is to characterize the pharmacokinetic profile (what the body does to the medication) of esketamine when given by the intranasal route (through the nose) to healthy adult Japanese and Caucasian participants. Read Less

1. Investigate the safety and effectiveness of a single dose of IV Ketamine for adolescents with suicidal ideation and depression. It is hypothesize that Ketamine will be well tolerated and significantly reduce depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation. 2. Explore whether decision making as measured by the Iowa Gambling Task changes before and after Ketamine infusion. It is hypothesize that IV Ketamine infusion will significantly improve the decision making ability a measured by the Iowa Gambling Task in adolescents that are suicidal. Read Less

Existing treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD) generally take weeks to months to exert their maximal benefit. There is an urgent need to develop rapid-acting treatments for MDD. Ketamine, a high-affinity N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptor antagonist, has been used as a standard intravenous (IV) anesthetic agent for many years in both pediatric and adult patients. Beyond its well-established role in anesthesia and pain management, there is emerging evidence that ketamine may have rapid antidepressant properties for patients with severe mood disorders. In this study we are investigating whether ketamine can have an antidepressant effect compared to midazolam. Midazolam has similar anesthetic effects compared to ketamine but has not been shown to be an antidepressant, and is therefore acting as an active control in this study. The study period can last up to 8 weeks, depending on your response to the study medication. There are two required overnight stays in our Research Commons as part of this study. Read Less

This is a prospective cohort study in which the standard verbal informed consent process for ketamine sedation is compared to a multimedia informed consent process. The goals include determining if parents prefer a multimedia consent process and evaluating the effectiveness of multimedia consent process. Read Less

Does the use of ketamine as the anesthetic medication in electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) accelerate the antidepressant effect of ECT? The study hypothesis was that depressed subjects receiving ECT with ketamine as the anesthetic agent would demonstrate a faster rate of improvement, defined as lower depression ratings after the second ECT than depressed patients receiving ECT with the usual anesthetic agent. Read Less

The primary objectives of this study are to investigate the potential for ketamine anesthesia to increase the antidepressant efficacy of Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and to decrease acute ECT-induced adverse cognitive effects. Read Less

Intravenous sedation is used frequently for the relief of pain and anxiety associated with oral surgical procedures performed under local anesthesia. The purpose of this study is to learn about patient and surgeon satisfaction with sedation using Dexmedetomidine in combination with midazolam alone or with midazolam plus low dose ketamine while having wisdom teeth removed. The sedation produced by dexmedetomidine is unique in that it mimics natural sleep, a unique quality not shared by other drugs. Dexmedetomidine is often used in anesthesia in hospital operating rooms and has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the use planned in this study. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to determine how pain relief is modified when the investigators combine the Virtual Reality based Snow World game with certain pain medications. Read Less

This is a pilot study to compare the hemodynamic changes that occur during induction with a novel drug combination known as ketofol (propofol and ketamine admixture with that of propofol alone (prototypic anesthesia induction agent). Propofol and ketamine are widely used as induction agents and their effects on patient hemodynamics are well known. Some of these drug-induced hemodynamic changes are undesirable and lead to deleterious effects on patient hemodynamics. We seek to investigate the hemodynamic changes associated with a novel drug combination known as ketofol (ketamine/propofol admixture) during induction and compare them to propofol. If we determine that the changes produced by ketofol are favorable compared with propofol, we then will seek to test its use in the trauma setting in a subsequent randomized controlled trial. Read Less