Ketamine
Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic used in human and veterinary medicine. At lower doses, it is also used to treat depression and pain.
NMDA receptor: A glutamate-gated ion channel involved in synaptic transmission, plasticity, and excitotoxicity. Ketamine blocks this receptor, a central part of its anesthetic and dissociative action.
Anesthesia: A medically induced state that prevents sensation, awareness, or both during procedures. Ketamine can provide anesthesia while often preserving spontaneous breathing and cardiovascular stability.
Propofol: An intravenous anesthetic that induces unconsciousness but does not provide substantial analgesia. Unlike propofol, ketamine usually provides analgesia and tends to preserve breathing and blood pressure.
Dissociation: A disruption in the usual integration of awareness, perception, memory, or identity. Ketamine can temporarily alter perception and the sense of self during treatment.
Calvin Stevens: An American chemist who synthesized ketamine while working at Parke-Davis. His chemical work produced the compound that became ketamine.
Glutamate: The main excitatory neurotransmitter in the vertebrate central nervous system. Ketamine’s effects involve altered glutamate signaling, including downstream synaptic changes.
Procedural sedation: Medication-induced reduction of awareness and distress to enable a diagnostic or therapeutic procedure. Ketamine is used for short procedures, especially when analgesia is also needed.
Nitrous oxide: An inhaled anesthetic gas used for analgesia and sedation in medicine and dentistry. It can produce dissociation, but its chemistry and delivery differ from ketamine’s.
Analgesia: Reduction or absence of pain without necessarily causing unconsciousness. Ketamine’s pain-relieving action helps distinguish it from many sedative anesthetics.
Parke-Davis: An American pharmaceutical company that developed and marketed numerous medicines during the twentieth century. The company investigated ketamine as a potentially safer alternative to phencyclidine.