A model for analysis of the anesthetic response

When a dose d of an anesthetic is administered intravenously, either sleep will be observed for a period of time or no sleep will occur. We developed a general approach for formulating a model for this response which reduces to a quantal response model if the duration of sleep is ignored. Several specific models illustrate the general formulation. In each case the underlying dose response relationship that corresponds to the quantal response problem is the logistic. To include the duration of sleep in the model we introduced a concept of an "active dose" which is a function of the administered dose and time. We use a set of data from a study of the response of guinea pigs to ketamine for our numerical examples.