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Commonly used as an anesthetic, for pain relief and increasingly for depression, ketamine聽may help alleviate migraine pain in patients who have not been helped by other treatments, suggests new research.

The study of 61 patients found that almost 75% experienced an improvement in their migraine intensity after a three- to seven-day course of inpatient treatment with ketamine.

鈥淜etamine may hold promise as a treatment for migraine headaches in patients who have failed other treatments,鈥� said study co-author Dr Eric Schwenk, director of Orthopedic Anesthesia at 聽in Philadelphia, USA. 鈥淥ur study focused only on short-term relief, but it is encouraging that this treatment might have the potential to help patients long term. Our work provides the basis for future, prospective studies that involve larger numbers of patients.鈥�

The researchers reviewed data for patients who received ketamine infusions for intractable migraine headaches 鈥� migraines that have failed all other therapies. On a scale of 0鈥�10, the average migraine headache pain rating at admission was 7.5, compared with 3.4 on discharge. The average length of infusion was 5.1 days, and the day of lowest pain ratings was day 4. Adverse effects were generally mild.

Dr聽Schwenk said while his hospital uses ketamine to treat intractable migraines, the treatment is not yet widely available. Thomas Jefferson University 黑料吃瓜群网 will soon be opening a new infusion centre聽that will treat more patients with headaches using ketamine. 鈥淲e hope to expand its use to both more patients and more conditions in the future,鈥� he said.

鈥淒ue to the retrospective nature of the study, we cannot definitively say that ketamine is entirely responsible for the pain relief, but we have provided a basis for additional larger studies to be undertaken,鈥� Dr聽Schwenk added.

The study results are being presented at the 鈥� 补苍苍耻补濒听肠辞苍蹿别谤别苍肠别.

Image credit: 漏stock.adobe.com/au/聽Sangoiri