Ketamine is known to provide pain relief comparable to opioid medications, which are highly addictive. In the recent study, appearing in the journal Academic Emergency Medicine, researchers studied 98 patients, ages 18 to 59, who presented to the emergency department with acute, moderate to severe pain.

The patients were randomized prospectively to receive either 0.15 mg/kg of ketamine (low dose) or 0.30 mg/kg (high dose). Patients and providers were blinded to dose, with the primary outcome of pain measured on the 11-point numerical rating scale (NRS) at 30 minutes.

At 15 minutes, the high dose group had a greater decrease in pain on the NRS but more adverse events.

At 30 minutes, adverse events and pain were similar.

Overall, patients generally reported that they would take ketamine again for pain – 75.6% in the low-dose group and 61.7% in the high-dose group.

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