Association of low-dose ketamine with hallucinations in critically ill patients: a target trial emulation.
Intensive care medicine May 5, 2025 Ary Serpa Neto, Marcus Young, Jian Wen Chan et al. 9 citations
Low-dose ketamine given to critically ill patients in the intensive care unit is strongly associated with a higher risk of hallucinations. In a retrospective study of 7514 patients, 8% received low-dose ketamine. Among those treated, 26% experienced hallucinations within 30 days of ICU admission, compared to 7% of untreated patients. The first hallucination also occurred earlier in ketamine-treated patients. After adjusting for other factors, low-dose ketamine increased the odds of hallucinations more than sixfold. The authors caution that the observational design means residual confounding could influence these results.