What happens during the coma treatment?
The patient is put into a ketamine-induced coma (with additional drugs to combat the drug’s hallucinogenic effects) and monitored for several days. The dose given here is extremely high; while low-dose ketamine infusions typically run between 25 and 90 milligrams, this treatment gives the patient between 600 and 900 milligrams. The coma calms the nervous system and “reboots” the patient, much like a computer. There are risks with this treatment, since the patient is in a coma: he or she could have a stroke or suffer other complications, though Dr. Schwartzman, Alessa’s doctor at the Drexel University College of Medicine, has never had major problems with temporarily comatose patients. Thirteen of Dr. Schwartzman’s patients have been completely cured; they no longer see him because their RSD is in complete remission. All of the patients who receive this treatment have had at least some decrease in their pain levels, and some have little to no pain at all. The goal is for the patient to
