Rutgers-led research finds increased energy after a single low-dose infusion.

Ketamine, a decades-old anesthetic and fast-acting treatment for severe depression, may also offer some people rapid relief from chronic fatigue, according to a small proof-of-concept study led by researchers at Rutgers Health and the National Institutes of Health.

Ketamine’s effects in the 10-participant clinical trial minimally outperformed an active placebo that unexpectedly exhibited its own antifatigue action. However, participants who received a single low-dose infusion of ketamine experienced a sufficient energy boost to justify further study.

For a symptom that has long resisted intervention, even a minor signal is noteworthy.

“Fatigue has always been ignored because it’s so difficult to understand what’s causing it,” said the study’s senior author, Leorey Saligan, a professor at the Rutgers School of Nursing who is also a member of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at Rutgers Cancer Institute, the state’s only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, together with RWJBarnabas Health.