Safety and Efficacy of Ketamine Intravenous Infusions in the Treatment of Fibromyalgia

Previous studies of intravenous ketamine, which is a non-competitive N-methyl-D aspartate receptor antagonist, for fibromyalgia pain relief are limited to three studies. Two studies have focused on short-term pain relief of intravenous ketamine by measuring the patients' pain levels immediately before and after the infusion. Currently, existing studies used short-term infusions (30-40 minutes) of sub-anesthetic doses of ketamine for pain relief in fibromyalgia patients, whereas the Consensus Guidelines on the Use of Intravenous Ketamine Infusions for Chronic Pain from the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, the American Academy of Pain Medicine, and the American Society of Anesthesiologists recommend infusing IV ketamine for at least two hours and a minimal total dose of 80 mg. The rationale of this study is to expand on the existing data of safety and efficacy of intravenous ketamine to relieve fibromyalgia pain. Specifically, this investigation will add data to fill the existing gap regarding the short- and long-term pain relief in the treatment of fibromyalgia with intravenous ketamine infusions. The study will also attempt to determine safety and tolerability. In addition, the characteristics of treatment responders versus non-responders will be assessed in an effort to determine whether specific characteristics can be used to predict treatment response in this group of patients.