LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) -- A new Cleveland Clinic study found that the drug ketamine can be used safe and effectively as a treatment for people with chronic pain. Ketamine is typically used as an anesthetic in surgery.

Ketamine isn’t currently approved by the FDA to treat chronic pain.

“Interestingly enough, despite it being invented 50 years ago, for the last 40 years, we have been using it on and off for chronic pain,” Dr. Pavan Tankha, a pain medicine specialist at Cleveland Clinic, said in a news release.

Tankha said his team decided to research ketamine as a treatment option because other medications don’t always work. The study revealed that people who received low-dose ketamine infusions reported an improvement in chronic pain and quality of life.

For the drug to be approved for t

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