Exhausted no matter how much you sleep? You could be one of the 3.3 million Americans struggling with chronic fatigue.
The condition causes relentless exhaustion that lasts six months or longer. Mental or physical activity often makes symptoms worse, and rest rarely helps — turning even simple tasks like work, school or basic self-care into daunting challenges.
Relief has long been hard to find, but new research suggests a controversial drug already on the market might give patients a much-needed energy boost.
In a small study released this week, scientists tested whether ketamine — a decades-old anesthetic and depression treatment known for its club-drug reputation — could help people battling chronic fatigue.
The trial included 10 participants. Among them were cancer survivors, who often develop chronic fatigue after treatment, as well as people with fibromyalgia, lupus and those formally diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome.
First, researchers measured each participant’s energy levels using a “fatigue visual analog scale,” a tool that quantifies how exhausted someone feels.
Next, participants received an injection of ketamine. Two weeks later, they were given a sedative called midazolam, which acted as a control.
The researchers used the scale to track changes in energy levels after each injection.
They found that within just 24 hours of the ketamine treatment, participants’ fatigue scores had dropped by an average of 39%. Three days later, their scores remained 21% lower on average.
Ketamine’s effects only slightly outperformed those of midazolam, even though the sedative wasn’t meant to treat chronic fatigue.
The researchers noted this could mean midazolam had a mild therapeutic effect or that fatigue naturally fluctuates from day to day.
Even so, the authors said the energy boost participants got from a single low-dose ketamine infusion is worth further study, given how challenging chronic fatigue can be to manage.
“Fatigue has always been ignored because it’s so difficult to understand what’s causing it,” Dr. Leorey Saligan, the study’s senior author and a professor at the Rutgers School of Nursing, said in a press release.
Experts say chronic fatigue may be triggered by a mix of factors, including genetics and viral or bacterial infections, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Physical or emotional trauma may play a role too, with some patients reporting that an injury, surgery or major stress occured right before their symptoms began.
Other patients struggle to convert fats and sugars into energy, which may help explain why their exhaustion lingers.
Currently, the main approach for easing chronic fatigue is gentle, low-intensity exercise like walking or yoga, which aims to boost energy without triggering symptoms.
In one study, people with chronic fatigue syndrome who completed a 12-week aerobic program showed significant improvements in fatigue, fitness, and physical function compared with a control group.
But for many patients, even light physical activity can make symptoms worse, leaving exercise out of reach as a solution.
If the effects hold up in future studies, Saligan suggested ketamine could one day serve as a short-term energy booster, helping patients take the first step toward other strategies that provide lasting relief, such as exercise.
“The idea is to prompt or reset the brain so people feel more motivated and able to take part in treatments that are proven to reduce fatigue,” he explained.
Looking ahead, Saligan and his team are planning a larger clinical trial to test ketamine on breast cancer survivors with chronic fatigue, hoping it will produce clearer results.
Their efforts come as chronic fatigue syndrome seems to be on the rise in the US, with new cases now estimated to be 15 times higher than before the Covid-19 pandemic.
One study found that 4.5% of post-Covid patients met the diagnostic criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome, compared with just 0.6% of people who hadn’t been infected with the virus, further underscoring that some infections may trigger the condition.
