Ketamine and Magnesium for Refractory Neuropathic Pain: A Randomized, Double-blind, Crossover Trial.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Ketamine is often used for the management of refractory chronic pain.

There is, however, a paucity of trials exploring its analgesic effect several weeks after intravenous administration or in association with magnesium.

Who Took Part

The study group was 20 patients.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

A randomized, double-blind, crossover, placebo-controlled study (NCT02467517) included 20 patients with neuropathic pain.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover study.

Because people in this Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Neither the patients nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group a baseline to be compared against.

In the crossover set-up each of the patients took both Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc and the comparison in turn, acting as their own control.

Secondary endpoints included pain (at 7, 15, 21 and 28 days) and health-related, emotional, sleep, and quality of life questionnaires.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Cognition, Emotions, Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists, Ketamine, Magnesium Sulfate, Neuralgia and Pain Measurement.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 20 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Its findings take up roughly 5 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2020 (Anesthesiology), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.