Pooling the studies, ketamine was linked to an overall reduction across pain, depression, and PTSD combined — not PTSD on its own.
A 2024 review combined the results of earlier ketamine studies in military service members dealing with pain, depression, and PTSD.
This review pooled 11 earlier studies — 384 military service members in total — that tested ketamine for chronic pain, depression, and PTSD. Combining them statistically, the authors found ketamine was associated with a consistent overall reduction in symptoms across those three conditions taken together. But the headline figure blends pain, depression, and PTSD into one estimate, so it isn't a PTSD-specific result, and the underlying studies vary in size and design. The authors describe it as a preliminary synthesis and call for more research. It points to ketamine as a possible option for military populations, not settled evidence.
This meta-analysis and systematic review pooled 11 studies (22 independent samples; 384 military service members) evaluating ketamine for chronic pain, depression, and PTSD. Across all outcomes combined, ketamine was associated with significant reductions (Hedges' g = 1.76, 95% CI 1.39-2.13, p < .001) — a large pooled effect by conventional benchmarks. The estimate aggregates the three conditions rather than isolating any one.
The pooled effect is large, but several caveats limit it. The headline number combines pain, depression, and PTSD, so it does not establish a PTSD-specific effect. It aggregates heterogeneous studies of varying size and design, and the pooled sample is military populations broadly, not veterans specifically. The authors themselves frame it as a preliminary synthesis and call for further research to verify the findings.
Ketamine's evidence base in military and veteran care is still developing. This review synthesizes small trials and observational cohorts rather than large confirmatory trials; individual studies in veterans have reported mixed results, including a VA trial in which repeated intravenous ketamine did not outperform placebo on PTSD (Abdallah et al., 2022). The pooled signal here should be read against that heterogeneity.
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