Hi. Out of curiousity, how long had your boyfriend had RSD when he received ketamine treatment? And what was the nature of his treatment? (An in-patient 5-day low dose infusion, 10-days of out-patient 4 hour infusions, etc.)

The reason I ask is because it's been observed for sometime now that - as with many treatments - the sooner you start it after developing symptoms of RSD/CRPS the better off you will fare. Hence the six month window SnowWhyte referred to above.

The big exception - at least in the first double-blind, controlled study of ANY ketamine treatment for RSD - was in the 10 day outpatient treatments, in which both people with fresh cases of RSD and those who had it for years, significantly outperformed the placebo group in a number of respects:

In this randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled study of primarily severe longstanding CRPS patients treated with a low dose multi-day infusion of ketamine, statistically significant reduction of pain (p < 0.05) was demonstrated in the ketamine treated group on: (1) the short form McGill pain questionnaire for the 3 month length of the study following treatment; (2) in several of the parameters evaluated in the pain questionnaire (pain in the most affected area, burning pain, pain when touched or brushed lightly and overall pain level; (3) data from the activity watch demonstrated fewer nighttime awakenings as well as lower daytime pain scores (only measured for 2 weeks following the last infusion); and (4) spontaneous burning pain decreased (p < 0.05) for 1 month. The subjects in the placebo group demonstrated no significant improvement between pre- and post-treatment values in any of these parameters. The changes in the other parameters queried: (1) overall pain; (2) deep muscle pain; (3) joint pain; (4) quantitative sensory testing; and (5) quality of life issues did not reach statistical significance (p > 0.05), however they trended toward improvement in the ketamine group and remained unchanged in the placebo group.

Outpatient intravenous ketamine for the treatment of complex regional pain, syndrome: A double-blind placebo controlled study, Schwartzman RJ, Alexander GM, Grothusen JR, Paylor T, Reichenberger E, Perreault M, Pain 2009 Dec 15;147(1-3):107-15. Epub 2009 Sep 23, ONLINE FULL TEXT @ http://www.rsds.org/2/library/articl...n_Pain2009.pdf

Mike

He has had RSD for almost 3 years now..They also did his infusions once a week for 3 hours for 3 weeks...which i had never heard of it done that way but it was done at the shepard spinal clinic here in atlanta

i was diagnosed with rsd 4 years ago in my arm. no blocks, botox, or most meds worked. i go to the mayo clinic for my every three months of hearing nothing more can be done. the rsd has spread to my other arm and then i go though periods of having trouble walking. i currentlytake klonopin and oxycodone but it still not enough to take away pain. maybe one of you could suggest something?

Can you go for another opinion? Have you tried other meds like neurontin? Looked into things like scs,ketamine,etc?