Ketamine applications beyond anesthesia – A literature review
Abstract
Ketamine's clinical use began in the 1970s. Physicians benefited from its safety and ability to induce short-term anesthesia and analgesia. The psychodysleptic effects caused by the drug called its further clinical use into question. Despite these unpleasant effects, ketamine is still applied in veterinary medicine, field medicine, and specialist anesthesia. Recent intensive research brought into light new possible applications of this drug. It began to be used in acute, chronic and cancer pain management. Most interesting reports come from research on the antidepressive and antisuicidal properties of ketamine giving hope for the creation of an effective treatment for major depressive disorder. Other reports highlight the possible use of ketamine in treating addiction, asthma and preventing cancer growth. Besides clinical use, the drug is also applied to in animal model of schizophrenia. It seems that nowadays, with numerous possible applications, the use of ketamine has returned; to its former glory. Nevertheless, the drug must be used with caution because still the mechanisms by which it executes its functions and long-term effects of its use are not fully known. This review aims to discuss the well-known and new promising applications of ketamine.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Ketamine is already used in hospitals and is not very difficult to obtain in that context.
“as it is a drug that is already used in hospitals, and is not very difficult to obtain in that context”
From Virtual reality and psychedelics for the treatment of psychiatric disease: A systematic literature review (2020) · cites this paper as Nowacka & Borczyk, 2019
Cites
A randomized trial of an N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonist in treatment-resistant major depression.
Zarate, C. A., Singh, J. B., Carlson, P. J., Brutsche, N. E., Ameli, R., Luckenbaugh, D. A., Charney, D. S., & Manji, H. K. (2006) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.63.8.856 · Cited by 3,766 · see citing works
Krystal, J. H. (1994) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1994.03950030035004 · Cited by 3,330 · see citing works
NMDA receptor blockade at rest triggers rapid behavioural antidepressant responses
Autry, A. E., Adachi, M., Nosyreva, E., Na, E. S., Los, M. F., Cheng, P.-F., Kavalali, E. T., & Monteggia, L. M. (2011) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature10130 · Cited by 1,926 · see citing works
Laulin, J.-P., Maurette, P., Corcuff, J.-B., Rivat, C., Chauvin, M., & Simonnet, G. (2002) · Anesthesia & Analgesia · doi:10.1097/00000539-200205000-00040 · Cited by 344 · see citing works
Glutamatergic Synaptic Dysregulation in Schizophrenia: Therapeutic Implications
Coyle, J. T., Basu, A., Benneyworth, M., Balu, D., & Konopaske, G. (2012) · Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-25758-2_10 · Cited by 180 · see citing works
Pharmacodynamic modeling of the EEG effects of ketamine and its enantiomers in man
Schüttler, J., Stanski, D. R., White, P. F., Trevor, A. J., Horai, Y., Verotta, D., & Sheiner, L. B. (1987) · Journal of Pharmacokinetics and Biopharmaceutics · doi:10.1007/bf01066320 · Cited by 178 · see citing works
Use of oral ketamine in chronic pain management: A review
Blonk, M. I., Koder, B. G., van den Bemt, P. M. L. A., & Huygen, F. J. P. M. (2010) · European Journal of Pain · doi:10.1016/j.ejpain.2009.09.005 · Cited by 168 · see citing works
Niesters, M., Khalili-Mahani, N., Martini, C., Aarts, L., van Gerven, J., van Buchem, M. A., Dahan, A., & Rombouts, S. (2012) · Anesthesiology · doi:10.1097/aln.0b013e31826a0db3 · Cited by 147 · see citing works
Dakwar, E., Levin, F., Foltin, R. W., Nunes, E. V., & Hart, C. L. (2014) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2013.08.009 · Cited by 143 · see citing works
The Nonmedical Use of Ketamlne, Part Two: A Review of Problent Use and Dependence
Jansen, K. L. R., & Darracot-Cankovic, R. (2001) · Journal of Psychoactive Drugs · doi:10.1080/02791072.2001.10400480 · Cited by 137 · see citing works
Ketamine kinetics in unmedicated and diazepam-premedicated subjects
Domino, E. F., Domino, S. E., Smith, R. E., Domino, L. E., Goulet, J. R., Domino, K. E., & Zsigmond, E. K. (1984) · Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics · doi:10.1038/clpt.1984.235 · Cited by 136 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Gómez-Busto, F. J., & Ortiz, M. I. (2020) · PubMed Central · doi:10.36131/cnfioritieditore20200606 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
“…with hallucinogens is not easily performed, which might explain why a great part of the trials included in our results utilized ketamine, as it is a drug that is already used in hospitals, and is not very difficult to obtain in that context (Krupitsky et al., 2002; Nowacka & Borczyk, 2019).”
Result
- Authors
- Nowacka, A., & Borczyk, M.
- Affiliations
- Instytut Biologii Doświadczalnej im. Marcelego Nenckiego (PL)
- ORCID
- Nowacka, Agata
- Venue
- European Journal of Pharmacology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2019-10
- Volume
- 860
- Pages
- 172547
- ISSN
- 0014-2999 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2964225567
- Cited by
- 129
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 28 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 9
- FWCI
- 1.41
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- European Journal of Pharmacology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Treatment of Major Depression
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine › Anesthesia and Sedative Agents
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Developmental Neuroscience › Anesthesia and Neurotoxicity Research
- Keywords
- ketamine, off-label drug use, analgesia, pain management, cancer pain, antidepressant effects, major depressive disorder, addiction treatment, asthma, cancer prevention, animal models of schizophrenia, field medicine, long-term drug effects
- MeSH terms
- Anesthesia, Animals, Humans, Ketamine
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
