Safety and tolerance of oral ketamine: A systematic review
Nathalia Novaretti, Rebeca Mendes P. Pessoa, Jaime Eduardo Cecílio Hallak, Rafael Guimarães dos Santos, Marcos Hortes N. Chagas · 2026
Read Safety and tolerance of oral ketamine: A systematic review by Nathalia Novaretti, Rebeca Mendes P. Pessoa, Jaime Eduardo Cecílio Hallak, Rafael Guimarães dos Santos, Marcos Hortes N. Chagas (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13537332.txt.
Description
Nathalia Novaretti and colleagues reviewed the safety of ketamine taken by mouth. Published in 2026, the planned review pooled 18 random placebo-controlled trials in adults, children, and healthy volunteers. Oral ketamine draws growing off-label use for hard-to-treat low mood, long-term pain, and child procedure calming, yet no standard oral form exists.
In low-mood trials with 427 people, side effects ran mostly mild and short-lived. Child trials before procedures, with 239 children, showed brief nerve effects without major safety worries. Pain and lab trials with 372 people showed mostly mild events, with spaced-out feelings at higher doses. Compared with controls, ketamine brought more dizzy spells, sleepiness, and spaced-out feelings, while serious harms stayed rare. The authors call the short-term safety picture good but the proof weak and long-term safety still open.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Nathalia Novaretti, Rebeca Mendes P. Pessoa, Jaime Eduardo Cecílio Hallak, Rafael Guimarães dos Santos, Marcos Hortes N. Chagas |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 44 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |