{"title":"Anesthetic Amnesia: The Forgotten Importance of Forgetting?","authors":"Kane O Pryor,Yandong Jiang,Jamie W Sleigh","doi":"10.1097/aln.0000000000005544","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"There is increasing evidence that the impairment of consciousness by anesthetic drugs does not always lead to its complete absence and that the loss of subjective experience with anesthesia may at times be an illusion created by amnesia. However, the study of how anesthetic drugs cause amnesia, and importantly how they fail, has received less attention than the other cardinal properties of anesthesia. There is no reliable biomarker to determine the adequacy of pharmacologic amnesia in real time. Anesthetic drugs can influence all stages of memory formation and recall, and their amnestic effects are dissociable from their hypnotic effects; for example, propofol has potent specific amnestic potential, whereas dexmedetomidine is a pure hypnotic. Post-traumatic stress disorder cluster symptoms, which constitute a disorder of amygdala-centered memory systems, are commonly related to surgical memories under both general anesthesia and procedural sedation and need to be better understood and managed.","PeriodicalId":7970,"journal":{"name":"Anesthesiology","volume":"109 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":9.1000,"publicationDate":"2025-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Anesthesiology","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1097/aln.0000000000005544","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ANESTHESIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
There is increasing evidence that the impairment of consciousness by anesthetic drugs does not always lead to its complete absence and that the loss of subjective experience with anesthesia may at times be an illusion created by amnesia. However, the study of how anesthetic drugs cause amnesia, and importantly how they fail, has received less attention than the other cardinal properties of anesthesia. There is no reliable biomarker to determine the adequacy of pharmacologic amnesia in real time. Anesthetic drugs can influence all stages of memory formation and recall, and their amnestic effects are dissociable from their hypnotic effects; for example, propofol has potent specific amnestic potential, whereas dexmedetomidine is a pure hypnotic. Post-traumatic stress disorder cluster symptoms, which constitute a disorder of amygdala-centered memory systems, are commonly related to surgical memories under both general anesthesia and procedural sedation and need to be better understood and managed.
期刊介绍:
With its establishment in 1940, Anesthesiology has emerged as a prominent leader in the field of anesthesiology, encompassing perioperative, critical care, and pain medicine. As the esteemed journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Anesthesiology operates independently with full editorial freedom. Its distinguished Editorial Board, comprising renowned professionals from across the globe, drives the advancement of the specialty by presenting innovative research through immediate open access to select articles and granting free access to all published articles after a six-month period. Furthermore, Anesthesiology actively promotes groundbreaking studies through an influential press release program. The journal's unwavering commitment lies in the dissemination of exemplary work that enhances clinical practice and revolutionizes the practice of medicine within our discipline.