ketamine for chronic pain

With regards to chronic pain conditions, there is some preliminary data that ketamine infusions can offer significant improvement for patients with chronic neuropathic pain, fibromyalgia, complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), post herpetic neuralgia, and other forms of chronic pain.

We are especially interested in helping patients with chronic pain to break the cycle of narcotic pain medication use. Narcotics do not just lose their effectiveness as patients develop a tolerance over time, but they can actually make the pain worse in their own right.

The concept of opioid induced hyperalgesia is when opioids (narcotics) make a patient’s pain receptors more sensitive to pain, leading to an even more vicious cycle of chasing pain with opioids. Some authors have suggested that this process is related to stimulation of NMDA receptors and that an antagonist (something that blocks receptors) may help break this cycle. Ketamine is a powerful NMDA antagonist which shows promise in doing this.