DEAR PEOPLE\u2019S PHARMACY: <\/b>We\u2019ve been hearing lately about using ketamine, a thought that scares me to death. Here\u2019s my story: I was on a gurney about to go for a colonoscopy. The tech person could not find a viable vein in my arms for an IV to put me to sleep. The doctor came out and said, \u201cAre you going to get this patient ready or not?\u201d The tech, who was not a doctor, then gave me a shot.<\/p>\n
When I woke up later, I could not walk at all. One of the nurses gave my husband a note that said how much ketamine had been given to me. My regular doctor later said that was enough to put down a grizzly bear.<\/p>\n
At home, I barely staggered to the rug in the living room where I lay for about 6 hours, then crawled up the stairs to bed where I stayed for about 12 hours. For three days, I was incoherent. My husband thought I had gone into dementia. On the fourth day, I was OK again. That\u2019s why I think ketamine is a dangerous drug. It needs careful administration.<\/p>\n
A.<\/b> The Food and Drug Administration approved ketamine (Ketalar) as a general anesthetic in 1970. When administered intravenously by a skilled anesthesiologist, ketamine acts quickly to put people to sleep and provide powerful pain relief.<\/p>\n
One of the biggest challenges with this anesthetic is recovery. As patients begin to wake up from anesthesia, they may feel disconnected from their bodies or environment. Some people report distorted perceptions or even hallucinations. It appears that you were overdosed, which led to the prolonged recovery time.<\/p>\n
Some people are now using low-dose oral ketamine to manage treatment-resistant depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (Journal of Psychopharmacology, June 5, 2025). The FDA has not approved oral ketamine for any indication.<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
In their column, Joe and Teresa Graedon answer letters from readers. Write to them in care of King Features, 628 Virginia Drive, Orlando, FL 32803, or email them via their website: www.PeoplesPharmacy.com. Their newest book is \u201cTop Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DEAR PEOPLE\u2019S PHARMACY: We\u2019ve been hearing lately about using ketamine, a thought that scares me to death. Here\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4315],"tags":[105,4326,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-189379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-medication","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114693907624325307","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}