Esketamine counters opioid-induced respiratory depression

Opioids can produce life-threatening respiratory depression. This study tested whether subanaesthetic doses of esketamine stimulate breathing in an established human model of opioid-induced respiratory depression.

In a study with a randomised, double blind, placebo controlled, crossover design, 12 healthy, young volunteers of either sex received a dose escalating infusion of esketamine (cumulative dose 40 mg infused in 1 h) on top of remifentanil-induced respiratory depression. A population pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic analysis was performed with sites of drug action at baseline ventilation, ventilatory CO₂-chemosensitivity, or both.

Remifentanil reduced isohypercapnic ventilation (end-tidal PCO₂ 6.5 kPa) by approximately 40% (from 20 to 12 litre min^-1) in esketamine and placebo arms of the study, through an effect on baseline ventilation and ventilatory CO₂ sensitivity. The reduction in ventilation was related to a remifentanil effect on ventilatory CO₂ sensitivity (~39%) and on baseline ventilation (~61%). Esketamine increased breathing through an exclusive stimulatory effect on ventilatory CO₂ sensitivity. The remifentanil concentration that reduced ventilatory CO₂ sensitivity by 50% (C₅₀) was doubled at an esketamine concentration of 127 (84-191) ng ml^-1 [median (interquartile range)]; the esketamine effect was rapid and driven by plasma pharmacokinetics. Placebo had no systematic effect on opioid-induced respiratory depression.

Esketamine effectively countered remifentanil-induced respiratory depression, an effect that was attributed to an increase in remifentanil-reduced ventilatory CO₂ chemosensitivity.