Ketamine for Refractory Chronic Migraine: a Pilot Study

Completed · Early Phase 1

Conditions studied: Migraine Headache With Intractable Migraine

In brief

Ketamine is a drug used for anesthesia but at low doses it is a very effective pain reliever in several chronic conditions. Preliminary studies have shown that ketamine might be effective for patients with refractory chronic migraine, which is a severe type of headache for which patients usually have tried and failed many medications and can cause severe disability to their lives. This study will evaluate ketamine prospectively when given to patients who have "failed" an initial inpatient treatment.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT03896256

Run by

Thomas Jefferson University

People needed

6

Starts

2019-03-22

Expected to finish

2020-01-01

Last updated by the study team

2020-03-11

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• All adult patients (age 18 years and older) who meet the criteria of refractory chronic migraine as defined by the International Classification of Headache Disorders-II definition who present to the Jefferson Headache Center after failing an inpatient course of treatment at Methodist.

You may not qualify if…

• Schizophrenia
• active psychosis
• pregnancy
• poorly controlled cardiovascular disease
• cirrhosis
• previous treatment with intravenous ketamine
• These criteria are all consistent with the 2018 Consensus Guidelines for Ketamine. Patients who are deemed poor candidates for ketamine by a study team member for any reason, such as intolerance of prior neuroleptic medications, may be excluded.

Where it is running

• Thomas Jefferson University Hospital — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

Trial information comes from ClinicalTrials.gov and is refreshed daily. TrialsForMe does not provide medical care and does not run the studies it lists.