Intranasal Ketamine

**Semantic type:** Pharmacologic Substance

**Definition:** An intranasal formulation of the synthetic cyclohexanone ketamine with analgesic and anesthetic activities. Although its mechanism of action is not well understood, ketamine appears to non-competitively block N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors and agonistically bind to and activate opioid mu and sigma receptors, thereby reducing pain perception, inducing sedation, and producing dissociative anesthesia.