Date rape drug used as painkiller

A notorious date rape drug is being used by paramedics because some patients find it a better painkiller than morphine.

The decision to use ketamine, which was also known as a party drug, followed a study by Auckland's Westpac rescue helicopter paramedics on 44 patients between January 2005 and last October.

St John Ambulance paramedics were also now using the drug and have trained about 160 staff throughout the country to administer it, The New Zealand Herald reported today.

Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust medical director Dr John Orton said ketamine superseded morphine in many situations.

"Certain pains are fairly easily manageable with morphine-type drugs, but the excruciating acute pain of acute injury is extremely hard to get on top of with morphine.

"We're talking about 10-tonne tractors rolled on top of people ... or typical quad bike idiots ... they flip it and they've got two broken legs below the knee pointing at right angles but otherwise they're uninjured.

"You've got to straighten these limbs out and splint them. If you try to do that without this sort of agent, it's horrible -- you cause excruciating discomfort. So to be able to do this in the field is a major bonus."

The use of ketamine outside a hospital environment was new, Dr Orton said.

There were some risks with the drugs but there were also risks with morphine.

"Ketamine has a very, very low risk profile in all those regards and you cannot say that about morphine," he told the newspaper.

"The risks and the downside are practically nil and the advantages are enormous."