Psychedelic Mental Health
Psychedelic Mental Health
Psychedelic Practice, Research & Advocacy
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Psychedelic Mental Health
ketamine

Spotlight: Ketamine as an Adjunct Therapy for Refractory Cancer Pain: A Case Report (Emshoff, et al, 2025)

"While traditionally recognized for its anesthetic and dissociative effects, low-dose, subanesthetic ketamine can be useful in palliative care to manage severe, intractable pain."
Michael DeMarco, PhD

by Michael DeMarco, PhD

Ketamine as an Adjunct Therapy for Refractory Cancer Pain: A Case Report - PubMed
Adequate analgesia in patients with advanced cancer can pose a significant clinical challenge, particularly when refractory to conventional opioid-based therapies. Refractory cancer pain, characterized by inadequate relief despite optimized opioid regimens or intolerable side effects, often prompts …
PubMedJessica B Emshoff

 Ketamine, an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, may represent a useful adjunctive therapy due to its unique analgesic properties and potential to mitigate opioid tolerance and hyperalgesia.

"La ketamina como una terapia adjunta para el dolor del cáncer refractario: un informe de caso"

Aunque tradicionalmente reconocido por sus efectos anestésicos y disociativos, la ketamina subanestética y subanestética puede ser útil en cuidados paliativos para controlar el dolor severo e intratable.

La ketamina, un antagonista de los receptores N-metil-D-aspartato (NMDA), puede representar una terapia adyuvante útil debido a sus propiedades analgésicas únicas y potencial para mitigar la tolerancia de los opioides y la hiperalgesia.

See Also

Publications
Psychedelics in Palliative Care (Glass, 2025) with contributions by Institute Fellows, Thais Salles Araujo, MD (Psilocybin) and Michael DeMarco, PhD (Ketamine)
Psychedelic Institute of Mental Health & Family TherapyMichael DeMarco, PhD

Psychedelics in Palliative Care (Glass, 2025)

More like this

Spotlight: How Ketamine Acts on the Brain - Microtubules & An Orch-Or Perspective

Ketamine has a psychedelic effect and an anesthetic modulation of brain microtubules. How this mechanism works, according to the principles of the Orchestrated Objective Reduction, shared by the Penrose-Hameroff (Orch-OR) consciousness model.

Spotlight: Ketamine Integration Chaplaincy: A Novel Spiritual Care Approach to Psychedelic Integration (2025)

"Although ketamine's mode of action is distinct from classic psychedelics, patients frequently report similar alterations in consciousness, including experiences described as spiritual or religious"

Spotlight: Jeffrey Becker - The Neurobiology Underlying Transcendence Induced by Ketamine and the Psychedelics (2026)

While psychedelics selectively amplify activity in specific neural circuits, ketamine acts on a receptor found widely throughout the brain. This raises a key question: how can a drug targeting such a common receptor produce such distinct and powerful subjective effects?

Spotlight: Yale presents “New Insights into the Neural Mechanisms of NMDA Receptor Antagonists Driving Rapid-Acting Antidepressant Effects” (Cichon, 2026)

"ketamine works on depression within minutes of infusion, lasting multiple days, if not weeks... amazing that it was classified as an anesthetic... twice as good as SSRI standards of care... leads to new formation of synapse, underlying sustaining mechanisms..."

Spotlight: "A Blueprint for Implementing Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy in Palliative Care: Design, Process, and Treatment Patterns of a Real-World Clinical Program" (Horowitz, et al, 2026)

"To our knowledge, this is the largest published cohort of KAP in an academic palliative care context. Our Pal-KAP experience suggests that KAP can be delivered safely and ethically, providing a practical blueprint for programs exploring innovative ways to address Psychospiritual distress (PSD)"

Rapid Improvement in Consciousness After Low-Dose Ketamine in a Patient With Acute Confusion: A Case Report (Khalafallah Khalid, et al, 2025)

"While anecdotal, such findings align with emerging literature and warrant further exploration of ketamine's neurocognitive effects beyond its established indications."