Ketamine Capsules

Ketamine capsules may help manage acute or chronic pain. It can also be useful in countering post-op pain in patients with:

• Reduced responsiveness to opioids (tolerance)
• Heightened sensitivity to pain (hyperalgesia)
• Pain due to stimuli that are not typically painful (allodynia)

Ketamine Capsule Uses

Ketamine usage for acute pain is indicated as a supplement to traditional pain relievers. This medication is not meant to be used in isolation for pain management. Ketamine’s optimal dose for pain has not yet been established. However, there exists only a narrow window between the optimal dose for pain management and the dose for anesthesia leading to a loss of consciousness.

Ketamine may help with other chronic pain disorders such as:

• Pain from reduced blood flow (ischemia) to tissues
• Complex regional pain syndrome, which can impact a limb post-injury
• Fibromyalgia, which is a type of pervasive musculoskeletal pain, including back pain
• Facial pain
• Atypical tooth pain
• Phantom limb pain experienced after amputation
• Postherpetic neuralgia, which is a pain in the nerves after the resolution of shingles
• Poststroke pain
• Spinal injury
• Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain

There is only moderate evidence for the effectiveness of ketamine in the treatment of chronic pain. However, it does deserve consideration as a third-line agent if the first and second-line agents such as anti-seizure meds, narcotics, and anti-depressants do not sufficiently address the chronic pain.