Ketamine reduces muscle pain, temporal summation, and referred pain in fibromyalgia patients
Pain April 1, 2000 Thomas Graven‐nielsen, Sally Kendall, Karl G. Henriksson et al. 409 citations
In people with fibromyalgia syndrome, an NMDA antagonist (ketamine) reduced pain at rest, decreased pain intensity and the spread of referred pain from an experimental muscle injection, and increased pressure pain tolerance at tender points. Ketamine also reduced the difference between pain thresholds to single versus repeated electrical stimuli, indicating a specific effect on temporal summation of pain signals. The findings suggest that central nervous system hyperexcitability contributes to referred pain and temporal summation in a subgroup of fibromyalgia patients, though whether this is unique to fibromyalgia or common in other painful musculoskeletal conditions remains unknown.