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VOA健康报道2023--Ketamine Becomes Pain Treatment Drug with Little Research

时间:2023-11-28 00:45:52

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Ketamine Becomes Pain Treatment Drug with Little Research

As doctors in the United States reduce their use of opioid painkillers2, another drug is becoming popular: ketamine.

For more than 50 years, ketamine has been used as a painkiller1 for patients having surgery. Now, for profit medical centers and online health services have increasingly used the drug as a treatment for pain, depression, anxiety and other conditions.

However, some experts worry about the increased use of the drug. They say there is not much research about how well the drug works to control pain. And they worry that, like opioids, too many patients may get prescriptions4 for it even though the drug carries safety and abuse risks.

Studying ketamine use

Dr. Padma Gulur is a pain specialist at Duke University in the state of North Carolina. She is studying ketamine's use. She says there are few pain medicines that doctors can choose from. So, limited research showing possible benefits of ketamine can lead to a big increase in its use, she told The Associated Press.

Gulur and her co-workers followed 300 patients receiving ketamine at Duke. They found that more than one-third of them reported important side effects that required professional help. These included hallucinations, troubling thoughts, and visual problems.

Ketamine also did not reduce opioid prescriptions in the months following treatment, Gulur said. The research is under review for publication.

Ketamine targets a brain chemical messenger called glutamate, which is thought to effect both pain and depression. A small amount of ketamine can produce strong effects on the brain, including hallucination.

Daniel Bass5 lives in the state of Kentucky. He was given ketamine for pain related to a rare bone and joint6 disorder7. He said the drug reduced his pain, but the visual effects of the drug were "horrifying8."

The business of ketamine

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ketamine 50 years ago as a painkiller for patients having surgery. The drug can now be purchased cheaply and prescribed by most doctors and some healthcare workers, like nurses, with less training.

Since 2017, prescriptions for ketamine have increased more than 500 percent, Epic9 Research, a medical data company said. Pain was the top condition for which ketamine was prescribed, though depression has been rising quickly.

Dr. David Mahjoubi owns the Ketamine Healing Clinic in Los Angeles, California. He offers ketamine for several conditions including pain, alcohol addiction10 and anxiety. "We want patients to disassociate or feel separate from their pain, depression or anxiety," he said. "If they feel like they're just sitting in the chair the whole time, we actually give them more."

Doctors can buy ketamine for less than $100 per treatment. They then charge between $500 and $1,500 to inject patients with the drug.

Online prescriptions have also become easier since COVID-19. So, health centers face increasing competition from online health services like MindBloom and Joyous11. These companies connect patients with doctors who can prescribe mixed versions of ketamine, like nasal spray and pills, remotely and send it through the mail.

In May, health officials tried to end the policy permitting online prescriptions of high-risk drugs like ketamine and opioids. But they agreed to extend the policy through 2024 after pushback from online health companies and doctors.

Dr. Samuel Wilkinson is a Yale University psychiatrist12 who prescribes ketamine and other drugs for depression. He says the current rules for prescribing ketamine are not very strict. "There's good things about that and not-so-good things about that," he said.

Last month, the FDA warned doctors and patients against mixed versions of ketamine. The agency said it does not regulate what goes into the mixtures and cannot say if they are safe. The warning followed a similar one last year about nasal spray versions of ketamine.

For now, experts say it is unlikely health officials will go beyond their recent warnings about mixtures of the drug.

Dr. Caleb Alexander is a drug safety researcher at Johns Hopkins University. He said controlling health centers is beyond the power government officials currently have.

Words in This Story

anxiety -n. a feeling of worry or nervousness

prescription3 -n. a signed order from a medical professional for medicine a patient can take

benefit -n. a good or positive effect or result

hallucination -n. a mental state of seeing something that is not really there, usually because you are ill or have taken a drug.

visual -adj. related to vision, or seeing

under review -adj. phrase; to be looked at and checked carefully

horrifying -adj. producing strong feelings of fear or extremely upsetting

addiction -n. a condition of taking harmful drugs and being unable to stop taking them

version -n. a particular form or type of something


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 painkiller eKMx4     
n.止痛药
参考例句:
  • I shall persuade him to take the painkiller.我将说服他把药吃下去。
  • The painkiller only provides him a short respite from his pain.止痛药仅仅让他在疼痛中有短暂的疏解。
2 painkillers 1a67b54ddb73ea8c08a4e55aa1847a55     
n.止痛药( painkiller的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The doctor gave him some painkillers to ease the pain. 医生给了他一些止疼片以减缓疼痛。 来自辞典例句
  • The primary painkillers - opiates, like OxyContin - are widely feared, misunderstood and underused. 人们对主要的镇痛药——如鸦片剂奥施康定——存在广泛的恐惧、误解,因此没有充分利用。 来自时文部分
3 prescription u1vzA     
n.处方,开药;指示,规定
参考例句:
  • The physician made a prescription against sea- sickness for him.医生给他开了个治晕船的药方。
  • The drug is available on prescription only.这种药只能凭处方购买。
4 prescriptions f0b231c0bb45f8e500f32e91ec1ae602     
药( prescription的名词复数 ); 处方; 开处方; 计划
参考例句:
  • The hospital of traditional Chinese medicine installed a computer to fill prescriptions. 中医医院装上了电子计算机来抓药。
  • Her main job was filling the doctor's prescriptions. 她的主要工作就是给大夫开的药方配药。
5 bass APUyY     
n.男低音(歌手);低音乐器;低音大提琴
参考例句:
  • He answered my question in a surprisingly deep bass.他用一种低得出奇的声音回答我的问题。
  • The bass was to give a concert in the park.那位男低音歌唱家将在公园中举行音乐会。
6 joint m3lx4     
adj.联合的,共同的;n.关节,接合处;v.连接,贴合
参考例句:
  • I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤,肩膀脫臼了。
  • We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。
7 disorder Et1x4     
n.紊乱,混乱;骚动,骚乱;疾病,失调
参考例句:
  • When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后,他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
  • It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。
8 horrifying 6rezZ3     
a.令人震惊的,使人毛骨悚然的
参考例句:
  • He went to great pains to show how horrifying the war was. 他极力指出战争是多么的恐怖。
  • The possibility of war is too horrifying to contemplate. 战争的可能性太可怕了,真不堪细想。
9 epic ui5zz     
n.史诗,叙事诗;adj.史诗般的,壮丽的
参考例句:
  • I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗,而写了这个小故事。
  • They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。
10 addiction JyEzS     
n.上瘾入迷,嗜好
参考例句:
  • He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
  • Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。
11 joyous d3sxB     
adj.充满快乐的;令人高兴的
参考例句:
  • The lively dance heightened the joyous atmosphere of the scene.轻快的舞蹈给这场戏渲染了欢乐气氛。
  • They conveyed the joyous news to us soon.他们把这一佳音很快地传递给我们。
12 psychiatrist F0qzf     
n.精神病专家;精神病医师
参考例句:
  • He went to a psychiatrist about his compulsive gambling.他去看精神科医生治疗不能自拔的赌瘾。
  • The psychiatrist corrected him gently.精神病医师彬彬有礼地纠正他。

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