ReviewJournal of pain research2022
Efficacy and Safety of Ketamine in the Treatment of Neuropathic Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.
Review in Journal of pain research, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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
19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review and network meta-analysis of pharmaceutical interventions used to manage chronic pain.Scientific reports · 2024Pooled it
- Article
- Ketamine Dosing Across Clinical Indications: A Narrative Review Organized by Proposed NMDA-Related Mechanisms.Journal of clinical pharmacology · 2026Review
- Neuroscientific Basis of Ketamine as an Analgesic and Emerging Role in the Management of Depression.Current pain and headache reports · 2026Review
- Targeting NMDA receptors in pain management: therapeutic innovations through piracetam repurposing.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2026Review
- Ketamine in Diabetes Care: Metabolic Insights and Clinical Applications.Pharmaceutics · 2026Review
- Oral Ketamine for Chronic Pain: Towards an Evidence-Based Dosing Regimen.Journal of pain research · 2026Review
- Managing Chronic Pain: The Ketamine Option.CNS drugs · 2026Review
- Optimizing ketamine dosing strategies across diverse clinical applications: a comprehensive review.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2025Review
- Ketamine-From an Anesthetic to a Psychiatric Drug: Mechanisms of Action, Clinical Applications and Potential Risks.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Pain and Perception: Exploring Psychedelics as Novel Therapeutic Agents in Chronic Pain Management.Current pain and headache reports · 2025Review
- Oral administration of Ketamir-2, a novel ketamine analog, attenuates neuropathic pain in rodent models via selective NMDA antagonism.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- Efficacy of adding ketamine to levobupivacaine in paravertebral block on acute and chronic pain in thoracotomy: a randomized controlled double-blinded trial.Pain reports · 2024Article
- Trigeminal Postherpetic Neuralgia: From Pathophysiology to Treatment.Current pain and headache reports · 2024Review
- Effects of Intrathecal Ketamine on Cerebrospinal Fluid Levels of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor and Mechanical Allodynia in a Rat Model of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research · 2024Article
- Article
- Pharmacological Proposal Approach to Managing Chronic Pain Associated with COVID-19.Biomedicines · 2023Review
- Novel Drug Targets and Emerging Pharmacotherapies in Neuropathic Pain.Pharmaceutics · 2023Review
- Narrative Review: Low-Dose Ketamine for Pain Management.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Purpose: Ketamine is a N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist with strong analgesic properties. Its addition to the treatment of neuropathic pain may reduce pain intensity and improve overall quality of life. A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials was performed to investigate the addition of ketamine to the treatment of patients with neuropathic pain. Patients and Methods: GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) approach was used to rate the overall certainty of the evidence for each outcome. Eighteen (18) randomized controlled trials including 706 participants were included for further analysis. Results: Ketamine addition to standard treatment of neuropathic pain (NP) resulted in a statistically significant reduction of pain intensity at one week after the end of treatment with ketamine (MD -2.14, 95% CI -2.65 to -1.63; p<0.00001) and after 30 days after the end of treatment with ketamine (MD -1.68, 95% CI -2.25 to -1.12; p<0.00001) and a statistically significant increase in discomfort (RR 4.06; 95% CI 1.18 to 13.95; p=0.03), and psychedelic effects (RR 4.94; 95% CI 2.76 to 8.84; p<0.00001). Conclusion: 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.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.