Spondylitis Association of America Forums General Discussion General Message Board for Ankylosing Spondylitis and Related Diseases Ketamine infusions

Anyone tried ketamine infusions for AS pain?

Ketamine is typically used to make a patient less responsive (anesthesia) and is used to perform procedures which normally would be painful especially in an ER setting. It is a very powerful drug and should be used only with the supervision of trained personnel. That said, there may be useful other uses for depression, pain and sedation. The most important consideration is other medications which are currently being used by the patient as these may potentiate Ketamine.

Yes, indeed, WhiteCell. It's a recent newcomer of a treatment modality for a different dx of mine, but I'm wondering if anyone has had success with it to treat AS pain.

Thank you RachelK for the question and to WhiteCell for the thoughtful response. I'm always learning from others regarding SpA. Using the search feature on this site, i see that the topic has come up before, there was a nice info link on that thread.

Thanks, Rahmba.
Hmmmm, I couldn't find much on previous threads. Is it possible to provide the link (or another way to find it)? Thanks so much!

I couldn't find anything on Ketamine infusions either. Lots of threads referring to compounded creams that include ketamine, and one long thread that started out talking about using a ketamine-induced coma to make the brain "reset" itself but then went in several directions as it progressed.

I've always found the search feature a bit frustrating, especially the fact that it only allows you to search 3 years at a time.

In the studies I've read the results are not better than placebo effects. This citation below argues from a pain control standpoint and suggests more research in needed.

https://www.ajmc.com/newsroom/pain-...ing-ketamine-to-treat-acute-chronic-pain

Bear in mind that anesthesia drugs, Fentanyl Ketamine Propafol decrease one's ability to PERCEIVE pain however the pain still exists. In practice when pain continues the patient is given more drug However, these are powerful sedation and hypnotic medications. They are unlike morphine, hydromorphone, and others contained in Norco, Toradol and others including acetaminophen, ibuprofen which target key pathways to actually relieve the pain itself by mitigating the receptor sites.

Respiratory depression can occur with any of these medications or combination of them. From my reading Ketamine is not a well researched drug for pain control. In practice, we use Ketamine to quickly " medically stun" the patient so that we can get them under control or set a out of joint bone. The effects are dramatic, rapid and must be tightly monitored.

That said, finding drugs which actually relieve pain and/or treatments which are adjuvant therapies are worth pursuing.

I bet it works great for the pain. I doubt it does anything to control the disease.

I've considered them but never tried them. I have tried a ketamine nasal spray. That helped with pain. It, of course, does not do anything for inflammation - it's just for pain control. In addition, I'm on an NSAID and biologic and DMARD.

Yeah, exactly. It won't do anything for disease progression of AS or inflammation; but maybe for chronic pain (i.e. "just" the symptom of pain). I'd love to get off my NSAID, or at least cut back. I'll report back if/when I try it. It's available and covered where I am for another dx I have. Thanks All!