Editorial: Ketamine for treatment of acute and chronic pain: The relationship of mechanism and exposure to therapeutic outcome
Year: 2022
Type: editorial
Abstract: Editorial on the Research Topic Ketamine for treatment of acute and chronic pain: The relationship of mechanism and exposure to therapeutic outcome Ketamine is by far one of the more intriguing drugs used in anesthesia, pain management, and in recent years psychiatry.Ketamine has been with us since the early 1960's and is used clinically for various indications that include induction and maintenance of anesthesia, sedation, treatment of acute and chronic pain, management of therapy-resistant depression, and other psychiatric illnesses such as posttraumatic stress disorder.Interestingly, its efficacy for each of these indications is dose-dependent with anesthesia requiring the highest dose, followed by pain relief at lower doses, and antidepression requiring the lowest dose.Ketamine is certainly not a simple or straightforward drug; it has two active stereoisomers, S-and R-ketamine, and multiple sequential metabolites including norketamine, hydroxynorketamine, and dehydronorketamine, all with varying pharmacological activity (1, 2).Importantly, apart from producing its dose-dependent desired effects, ketamine produces unwanted psychedelic effects that limit dosing recommendations as well as patient compliance.Ketamine is within the class of drugs termed psychoplastogens, a group of drugs that promote synaptic cross-talk in the cortex through rewiring of neurocircuitry (3, 4).Ketamine and the other psychoplastogens produce mind-altering effects that are highly associated with their desired effects (5, 6).As more evidence emerges, it is clear that many aspects of the pharmacology of ketamine, both with respect to its pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, are still poorly understood and require further study.Frontiers in Pain Research hosted the Research Topic "Ketamine for treatment of acute and chronic pain: the relationship of mechanism and exposure to therapeutic outcome" to improve our understanding of ketamine therapy and to share various new developments Frontiers in Pain Research frontiersin.org
Source: Frontiers in Pain Research
Authors: Albert Dahan, Thomas K. Henthorn
Language: English
Subfield: Surgery
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,900
OpenAlex ID: W4292707853