introduction: suicidal ideation is an emergent problem in the emergency department (ed) that often complicates patient disposition and discharge. it has been shown that ketamine possesses fast acting antidepressant and anti-suicidal effects. this study was conducted to examine the effects of a single intravenous bolus of ketamine on patients with suicidal ideations in ed. methods: forty-nine su...

Ketamine abuse is being increasingly reported worldwide. The drug can produce a dissociative state and hallucinations, making ketamine a favorite recreational agent among drug addicts. Chronic ketamine abuse can damage many organs, including the brain, heart, liver, gastrointestinal tract, and genitourinary system. We report a patient with chronic ketamine abuse who presented with severe cachex...

Ketamine is widely used in animals and humans as a systemic anesthetic. Although several immune-modulatory functions of ketamine have been reported, the effects of ketamine on the differentiation of Th17 cell are unknown. We found that ketamine significantly diminished the frequency of IL-17-producers among CD4+ T cells stimulated under Th17-skewing conditions. Mechanistic studies showed that k...

Background: From 2007 onwards reports of ketamine abuse uropathy have been reported from time to time in the medical literature but most medical practitioners and the public are not aware of the presentation, pathophysiology, investigation and management of this new entity Aims: To review the literature on ketamine-abuse uropathy. To summarise the investigation and management of the disease. Li...

Ketamine produces rapid and sustained antidepressant actions in depressed patients, but the precise cellular mechanisms underlying these effects have not been identified. Here we determined if modulation of neuronal activity in the infralimbic prefrontal cortex (IL-PFC) underlies the antidepressant and anxiolytic actions of ketamine. We found that neuronal inactivation of the IL-PFC completely ...

Pentameric ligand-gated ion channels (pLGICs) are targets of general anesthetics, but a structural understanding of anesthetic action on pLGICs remains elusive. GLIC, a prokaryotic pLGIC, can be inhibited by anesthetics, including ketamine. The ketamine concentration leading to half-maximal inhibition of GLIC (58 μM) is comparable to that on neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. A 2.99 Å ...

BACKGROUND Ketamine is used as an analgesic for treatment of acute and chronic pain. While ketamine has a stimulatory effect on the cardiovascular system, little is known about the concentration-effect relationship. We examined the effect of S(+)-ketamine on cardiac output in healthy volunteers and chronic pain patients using a pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic modeling approach. METHODS In 10 ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The association of drugs with different mechanisms of action in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord decreases postoperative pain, with a reduction in the incidence of side effects. The aim of this study was to evaluate postoperative analgesia and sedation by epidural S(+) ketamine and S(+) ketamine-morphine associated with ropivacaine in subcostal cholecystectomy. MET...

The ‘ketamine dart’ is an old and trusted standby for pediatric anesthesiologists: in the uncooperative pediatric patient, the intramuscular administration of ketamine – if necessary straight through the clothes – has proven itself as an effective approach to induce a moderate level of anesthesia while maintaining blood pressure, breathing and airway reflexes. Ketamine also is used frequently f...

OBJECTIVES There are multifaceted views on the use of ketamine, a potentially addictive substance, to treat mental health problems. The past 15 years have seen growing media coverage of ketamine for medical and other purposes. This study examined the print news media coverage of medical and other uses of ketamine in North America to determine orientations and trends over time. METHODS Print n...