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Updated: Aug 19, 2026

Assessing Changes in Volatile General Anesthetic Sensitivity of Mice after Local or Systemic Pharmacological Intervention
Published on: October 16, 2013
How has molecular pharmacology contributed to our understanding of the mechanism(s) of general anesthesia?
1Department of Psychology, Durham University, UK.
Abstract:
This review discusses the mechanism(s) of general anesthesia from a pharmacological viewpoint; in particular, the ability of drugs to produce many different effects is emphasised. The problems of experimental measurement of general anesthesia are discussed, and the possibilities for antagonism and potentiation of anesthesia considered. Physicochemical studies on anesthesia are described, as are the advancement of ideas beyond consideration of lipids and proteins as separate sites of action. The importance of studies on different areas of the brain is highlighted, and the review finishes with a survey of the effects of general anesthetics on synaptic transmission which emphasises the problems of extrapolation from in vitro to in vivo.
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