what is ketamine's drug dose used for

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Ketamine's drug doses vary depending on the intended use, primarily anesthesia or pain management. For anesthesia:

  • Intravenous (IV) induction dose for adults is typically 1 to 4.5 mg/kg given slowly over 60 seconds, with an average of 2 mg/kg providing 5 to 10 minutes of anesthesia.
  • Intramuscular (IM) induction dose is generally 6.5 to 13 mg/kg, providing 12 to 25 minutes of anesthesia.
  • Maintenance doses are adjusted based on the patient's needs and may be increments of half to full induction doses as required.

For pain management and other off-label uses such as depression or status epilepticus treatment, lower, sub-anesthetic (sub-dissociative) doses are used, which provide analgesia without producing full anesthesia or dissociation. Ketamine is FDA-approved as a general anesthetic but is also widely used off-label for pain control and psychiatric conditions like treatment-resistant depression, where doses are lower than those for anesthesia. The drug is administered mainly by IV or IM routes, and dosing depends on the patient's age, condition, and desired effect. In summary, ketamine doses:

  • 1 to 4.5 mg/kg IV or 6.5 to 13 mg/kg IM for anesthesia.
  • Lower doses for pain relief and psychiatric uses.
    These doses are carefully calibrated to produce the desired sedative, anesthetic, or analgesic effect without excessive side effects.