There’s one of those popular facts that you here every now and again, which says that anaesthetics don’t block pain, they just stop you remembering the excrutiating agony etc.
Is there any truth in this?
I have a pretty clear memory of my teeth being drilled (with novocaine), so I’m gonna say no, anaesthetics don’t block memory. At least not all of them.
Versed on the other hand is supposed to do just that, but I’ve never had it, so I can’t really say.
I meant general anaesthetic - I should have specified.
I recall reading that some unethical physicians who screw up the anaesthesia and paralyse you without rendering you unconscious will give you a drug ( sodium pentothal I believe ) that can unreliably give you amnesia for recent memories in hopes of covering up their error.
I can’t find a cite though.
When I had my parathyroid [lower right one] removed, i was wide awake for all of it except for about the first 5 or 10 minutes. i remember being given a shot after they wheeled me in and decorated me with assorted bits of cloth to create a surgical field. I do not remember them shooting the area around the throat nor the first cut. I do remember conversing with the anesthetologist and doctor for the rest of the time she was rummaging around in my throat.
Put me down as having a very relaxing hour while sitting there with my throat cut=)
I would do it again in a heartbeat, she is a phenomenal surgeon [she is also the head of surgical endocrinology at Yale New Haven … ]
Modern anesthetics are created by knowing how to break the pain linkage. They are designed that way from the very beginning. Creating them to lose memory would require totally different functionality.
It is true that many forms of anaesthetia (or drugs given alongside anaesthetia) will cause memory blackouts lasting several hours.
Well, what I can find on that particular drug seems to indicate that it would be a very ineffective amnestic. Midazolam, as mentioned earlier, would be far more effective.
Scopolamine has noted amnesia effects. Some of the horror stories associated with “twilight sleep” involve medical practitioners skimming the morphine because patients wouldn’t remember being in pain.
How would we know if it were true?
My dentist gave me triazolam before pulling a tooth. I was afraid I’d feel all the pain, but forget it later. But, I distinctly (well, not that distinctly) remember the tooth coming out and asking “that was the tooth, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.”
I remembered; just didn’t care.
Triazolam is a benzo, and I think the general consensus is that it can cause amnesia, but doesn’t necessarily. It’s main effects are to make you groggy (unlike other sedatives, which slow your entire body down) and make you care far less about things.
Anesthetics are not the same as analgesics, which is what is commonly called a “painkiller”, such as morphine. What we call “general anesthetics” are often inhaled anesthetics, such as halothane. These drugs do cause unconsciousness and a loss of pain perception. Exactly how this occurs is not completely understood. Typically though, patients are given combinations of drugs during a surgical procedure. Benzodiazepines, such as midazolam (Versed) and triazolam can and do cause amnesia for preceeding events. Or, as another poster said, the patient is aware of what is happening but doesn’t care.
Another great OP name/thread title combo. 
The last GA I had, I can’t recall them even injecting the induction drugs… which is weird because I can clearly remember all the previous inductions (back to about age 5).
There are drugs that have the effect of preventing you from remembering painful experiences. That isn’t what anaesthetics or analgesics do, although they may be administered alongside such drugs. I’ve had such experiences in younger days. Though unfortunately I paid little attention to what I was being administered, I was explicitly told that this particular drug cocktail would keep me conscious so that I could respond to questions and obey commands, but remember none of the unpleasantness that occurred.
I can’t imagine that a ‘forgetful’ drug would ever be used without analgesics/anaesthetics. The physician doesn’t want the patient to experience or remember much pain, but they also do not want to operate on a patient who is actively trying to escape. Patients need to be as sedate and obedient as possible.
Edited to add: after reading later posts I see the OP meant ‘general anaesthetic’. General means you’re unconscious. By definition, that means you don’t feel anything and you don’t remember anything (if it’s administered properly).
I’m not a CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist) myself but I’ve long been in the position to read their trade journal (AANA Journal) which goes into excruciating detail about how various anesthetics work. Amnesia is, at most, a very minor part of the package when it comes to general anesthesia, and they’re a lot more worried about maintaining respiration than how much the patient remembers when the general wears off.
This squares with my own memories of having my wisdom teeth extracted a few years ago: I remember everything up to a little while after the IV went in (and, incidentally, I woke up Happy, with Sleepy on one side and Weepy on the other ;)).
As for the ‘awake but paralyzed’: It’s real, it’s happened multiple times, and they have brain monitoring devices now specifically to keep it from ever happening again. Any anesthetist or anesthesiologist practicing now should have access to one and have been trained in its proper use.
The reactive flinching and screaming in pain of the patients apparently under anesthesia. The patients themselves might figure it out by bruising from restraints to prevent them from flailing about too much, or from hitting something prior to being restrained.
I recall that there is a reference to this kind of thing in the book The Mind’s I by Hoffstedter and Dennett. Whichever author was responsible for that chapter seemed to think it possible that what the OP mentioned is in fact possible. But neither of them is a doctor. (One is a philosopher, the other a cognitive scientist.)
-FrL-
The idea is that General Anaesthesia paralyzes the patient but does not actually render them unconscious. Rather, (the idea is) it blocks their memory formation faculties instead.
-FrL-