Can Ketamine Relieve Pain Without Causing Dissociation?
New Research on Pain Relief
A new study by Tel Aviv University and Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov) suggests that ketamine's pain-relieving effects and the sense of dissociation it produces involve distinct brain mechanisms.
The study was led by Dr. Noam Goldway, under the supervision of Prof. Talma Hendler and Dr. Hagai Sharon, and was published in Neuropsychopharmacology, a journal in the Nature Portfolio.
Does ketamine's ability to relieve pain depend on the feeling of dissociation it can cause? The new findings suggest that these two effects may be mediated by different neural mechanisms.
The researchers recruited 37 healthy volunteers, 33 of whom completed the full experimental procedure. During two separate sessions, participants received an infusion of either ketamine or a placebo. They underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while being exposed to controlled heat stimuli and reporting their levels of pain and dissociation.
Ketamine reduced pain and increased feelings of dissociation, but the researchers found no significant association between the intensity of these two effects.
Brain imaging also revealed distinct patterns. Pain relief was accompanied by reduced activity in brain regions involved in pain processing, while dissociation was associated with changes in a brain network involved in processing the sense of self.
The findings may help guide future research toward developing pain treatments that preserve ketamine's analgesic effects while minimizing dissociation.
However, the study was conducted with healthy volunteers under controlled experimental conditions. Further research is needed to determine whether these findings can be translated into clinical treatments.
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