Efficacy and Safety of Ketamine in the Treatment of Neuropathic Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.
José Eduardo G PereiraLucas Ferreira Gomes PereiraRafael Mercante LinharesCarlos Darcy Alves BersotTheodoros AslanidisHazem Adel AshmawiPublished in: Journal of pain research (2022)
There is a statistically significant pain reduction by adding ketamine to the treatment of chronic NP when compared to the standard treatment. However, such pain reduction comes at the expense of adverse outcomes, especially psychedelic effects related to the administration of ketamine. However, the overall quality of certainty of evidence is low due to the clinical heterogeneity among the intervention characteristics of the trials analyzed (different administration routes, dosing regimen, therapy durations, different clinical characteristics of the population investigated). Future large multi-centered trials are necessary to confirm or not the results of the present review.