Israeli Research Offers New Direction for Ketamine-Based Pain Relief

By Pesach Benson • October 11, 2026

Jerusalem, 11 October, 2026 (TPS-IL) — Israeli researchers have uncovered evidence that could help pave the way for pain treatments that retain ketamine’s benefits while avoiding its disorienting psychological effects. Their findings challenge the assumption that the drug must alter consciousness to relieve pain.

Although the researchers have not developed such a treatment, their findings suggest that ketamine’s pain-relieving effects may be achievable without the dissociation that can make its use distressing.

The study involved brain scans and experiments with 37 healthy volunteers. It was led by Dr. Noam Goldway at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for Psychedelic Research, under the supervision of Prof. Talma Hendler and Dr. Haggai Sharon, in collaboration with Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. The findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal *Neuropsychopharmacology*.

Ketamine is used in medicine for pain relief and has attracted growing interest for its effects on depression. Researchers are also investigating its potential for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, the drug can cause dissociation, a temporary feeling of detachment from oneself, one’s body, or one’s surroundings.

Researchers have long debated whether dissociation contributes to ketamine’s therapeutic effects. One theory holds that the altered experience may change how people perceive pain, making it feel less intense or threatening.

To examine this possibility, the Israeli team investigated whether participants who experienced stronger dissociation also reported greater pain relief.

Separate Pathways for Pain and Dissociation

The volunteers, both men and women, took part in two separate sessions, receiving an infusion of ketamine in one and a placebo — a substance without the drug’s active ingredient — in the other. During the experiments, they were exposed to controlled pain stimuli while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a technique used to measure changes in brain activity. They also rated their pain intensity and the strength of their dissociative experiences.

Although ketamine reduced pain and increased dissociation, the researchers found no direct relationship between the two effects. Participants who experienced stronger dissociation did not necessarily report greater pain relief.

Brain scans provided further evidence that the effects may involve different mechanisms. Pain relief was associated with reduced activity in the insula and anterior cingulate cortex, brain regions involved in pain processing. Dissociation, by contrast, was associated with changes in the default mode network, a group of interconnected brain regions involved in processes including the sense of self.

The findings suggest that ketamine may influence pain and consciousness through distinct brain pathways, rather than relieving pain by inducing dissociation.

“In recent years, there has been a lively scientific and clinical debate over whether the subjective experience produced by psychoactive drugs is an integral part of their therapeutic effect,” Hendler said.

“Our study shows that, at least in the case of ketamine and pain relief, the answer is apparently no,” she added. “We were able to show that the drug’s effect on pain is separate from its effect on consciousness — both behaviorally and in terms of brain activity.”

Hendler cautioned against extending the findings to other psychedelic substances, such as psilocybin, the psychoactive compound found in magic mushrooms.

“In this case, the burden of proof still rests with us, the scientists,” she said.

The researchers emphasized that the study involved healthy volunteers under controlled experimental conditions, rather than patients receiving treatment for chronic pain. Further research will be needed to determine whether the findings apply to clinical settings and can inform the development of treatments that reduce ketamine’s dissociative effects without compromising its pain-relieving properties.