Charlie Rose show on pain

[Diandra]

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Charlie Rose(PBS show) has been doing a great series on the brain. This segment is about pain.
This gal had pain from a gymnastics accident and the pain was made worse after surgery.
She speaks of finally getting her neuro pain under control with a series of 4 hour IV's of Ketamine which
I believe is in the anti-epileptic family. She also takes Lyrica.
Has anyone every done this or know anything about it?
I am going to ask my pain doc about it next visit.

Hope you can see the show, if not, let me know and I will search for elsewhere like Youtube, etc.

Hope you are all doing well today, Diandra

[tortoisegirl]

Ketamine is a rarely used med, but there is some data and anecdotal evidence that it can be quite helpful for some intractable pain. Its actually a NMDA receptor antagonist. Its actually also used as a horse tranquilizer lol. In humans, I believe its mostly used in anesthesia and sometimes topically...if your doctor writes a prescription, you can get a pain cream compounded that has ingredients such as it, lidocaine, a muscle relaxer, etc (I tried it without relief, but my pain doesn't respond to anything topical).

You're likely hard pressed to find any doctor to use it off label for pain, even in a hospital setting, but I'm sure if you see a pain specialist they will have heard of it. It can apparently have some pretty severe side effects sometimes. I sure hate hearing about these ground breaking treatments that are likely a decade away for the rest of us. I know in the headache world for folks like me with sudden onset constant headaches, they sometimes try various IV treatments to break the headache, such as lidocaine, DHE, etc. I haven't had that opportunity though. Not as sure if they would do that for other types of pain. Best wishes.

[Eva 14]

Diandra, I also am somewhat familiar with Ketamine, although I have never tried it. I know that it is an anesthetic that is also used as a veterinary tranquilizer.

A few pain doctors out there are experimenting with Ketamine IV's. I also have chronic migraine, so I've wondered if there's any chance that it could possibly break up my migraine cycle. My pain doc wasn't too optimistic about it, and he is familiar with Ketamine IV treatments.

Ketamine can cause severe hallucinations, so that's a bit scary. It causes feelings of "depersonalization". It's a pretty strange med, but if it helps pain, I would take it. However, it often only offers very temporary pain relief (like 3 or 4 days).

The problem is that Ketamine IV's are NOT covered by insurance AND are extremely EXPENSIVE. A few hours of Ketamine IV will cost anywhere from $3,000 all the way to $12,000----ALL of it out-of-pocket. So it's simply too expensive for me to try, and probably prohibitively expensive for most people to try. I WISH insurance would cover things like this, especially when NOTHING else has worked. I too have tried SEVERAL IV meds (DHE, Depacon, lidocaine, magnesium, etc.) to try to end my constant migraine, none of which worked.

I don't know if the day will ever arrive when something like Ketamine is covered by insurance. It's considered to be too "experimental". Due to its extremely high cost, I won't be able to try it until the day when insurance finally covers it, IF they ever do. It's pretty doubtful that they ever will, which is disappointing.

Ketamine is something to consider, especially if you've tried everything else and nothing works. But be prepared to spend a small fortune----I really doubt that many people can afford those prices. It also would be very difficult to find a doctor who does Ketamine IV's.

I would be interested to hear what your pain doc has to say about it. Good luck to you.

Best Wishes,
Eva

[Diandra]

Kate and Eva,
Thanks for the info. It is interesting to learn about this treatment but disheartening if still in the experimental stages or too costly to be available to most folks. I wish you both the best.
Diandra