Special K: How ketamine could be a gamechanger for people with chronic pain

Determined to shake its bad rap as a recreational street drug, Kate Brayden says ketamine is a gamechanger for persistent pelvic pain

A joint study between researchers at Trinity College Dublin and St Patrick’s Mental Health Services found small doses of ketamine under professional supervision can produce mental health benefits and treat chronic female pain.

Despite being a pain patient for about five years, the first time I heard of oral ketamine as a chronic pain treatment was when I met Dr Kirk Levins in the National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street. I was attending him for scar tissue and nerve pain in the lower back and pelvis, having already seen dozens of various consultants in Dublin, London, Washington, and Zurich for various (mostly unsuccessful) surgeries and treatments over that period.

My physiotherapist spoke wonders about a consultant who had worked with St Vincent’s pain team for years, now treating Ireland’s countless pelvic pain patients. After waking up from a day procedure, my pain levels skyrocketed. Instead of offering me the usual temporary aid of fentanyl, Dr Levins prescribed me liquid ketamine. Building up in my system, I could take small amounts per day and could stop the medication anytime, without the usual withdrawals. That part I found hard to believe, but he confirmed that Brexit had led to a sudden but brief shortage of liquid ketamine in Ireland, and some patients were suddenly cut off from the supply. He has been prescribing it since he was a trainee at St Vincent’s University Hospital, which has used liquid ketamine for over 15 years. Instead of experiencing withdrawals, as with opioids and medications like Lyrica (pregabalin), his patients were fine when they stopped taking liquid ketamine; apart from their pain levels rising, of course.