What is the evidence for the safety and efficacy of using ketamine in children?

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

Who cites it

21 citing papers in PubMed.

1. Priapism in the paediatric and adolescent population.International journal of impotence research · 2026
   Review
2. Intramuscular Ketamine Pharmacokinetics in Humans: A Review.European journal of drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics · 2026
   Review
3. Exploring the Therapeutic Potential of Ketamine and Psilocybin in Comparison to Current Treatment Regimens for Treatment-Resistant Depression, Mood Disorders, and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder in the Pediatric Population: A Narrative Review.Cureus · 2025
   Review
4. Empowering understanding: navigating consent to ketamine treatment in adolescent mental health.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024
   Article
5. Comparison of the Effect of Adding Low-dose Ketamine to Dexmedetomidine and Propofol on the Quality of Sedation and Hemodynamic Response in Children During Upper Gastrointestinal Endoscopy: A Double-blind Randomized Clinical Trial.Anesthesiology and pain medicine · 2023
   Article
6. Role of the mesolimbic dopamine pathway in the antidepressant effects of ketamine.Neuropharmacology · 2023
   Review
7. Association between simulated ketamine exposures and oxygen saturations in children.International journal of pharmacokinetics · 2023
   Article
8. Neuroinflammation and neuroprogression in depression: Effects of alternative drug treatments.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2022
   Review
9. Low-dose ketamine infusions reduce opioid use in pediatric and young adult oncology patients.Pediatric blood & cancer · 2022
   Article
10. Clinical Uses of Ketamine in Children: A Narrative Review.Cureus · 2022
    Review
11. Prophylactic (R,S)-Ketamine Is Effective Against Stress-Induced Behaviors in Adolescent but Not Aged Mice.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2022
    Article
12. Acute (Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022
    Article
13. Early non-excisional debridement of paediatric burns under general anaesthesia reduces time to re-epithelialisation and risk of skin graft.Scientific reports · 2021
    Article
14. Comeback of ketamine: resurfacing facts and dispelling myths.Korean journal of anesthesiology · 2021
    Review
15. Overlap in the neural circuitry and molecular mechanisms underlying ketamine abuse and its use as an antidepressant.Behavioural brain research · 2020
    Review
16. Ketamine: The final frontier or another depressing end?Behavioural brain research · 2020
    Review
17. Ketamine Use for Cancer and Chronic Pain Management.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2020
    Review
18. Malignant cerebellar edema in three-year-old girl following accidental opioid ingestion and fentanyl administration.The neuroradiology journal · 2019
    Article
19. Ketamine/Xylazine-Induced Corneal Damage in Mice.PloS one · 2015
    Article
20. Sedoanalgesia in pediatric daily surgery.International journal of clinical and experimental medicine · 2013
    Article

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

Abstract

PubMed holds no abstract for this paper.