Lack of ketamine safety standards endangers patients, says UCI Health anesthesiologist

Experts need to come together to standardize dosing and monitoring

IN THE NEWS: Although the number of ketamine clinics is on the rise, there is still no safe, standardized dosing formula for the drug, which is increasingly being used off-label to treat depression.

UCI Health anesthesiologist Dr. Rakhi Dayal writes in Medpage Today that the death of actor Matthew Perry due to a ketamine overdose highlights a need for clear standards and best practices to ensure the safety of patients who use the anesthetic drug, especially in non-clinical settings.

“When used in ketamine clinics or at home, there are wide variations in treatment protocols. We need a multidisciplinary effort to bring together psychiatrists and psychologists, who are experts in mental health, and anesthesiologists, who are experts in pain medicine, to identify and promote the right safety standards. This includes dosage, rate of infusion, frequency, duration of treatment, monitoring for adverse effects, and consideration of comorbidities.”

Dayal is an anesthesiologist at UCI Health Pain Management Services and UCI Health Anesthesia Services, as well as an associate professor in the Department of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Care at the UC Irvine School of Medicine. She is actively involved in research and in the training of fellows and residents with the goal of expanding the clinical interdisciplinary pain practice at UCI Health.

Read more

• Medpage Today: What the Matthew Perry tragedy reminds us about ketamine use ›
• Ketamine use requires careful monitoring, says UCI Health psychiatrist ›
• How to recognize when you're depressed ›
• Is depression the new normal with aging? ›