Anaesthesia

Clinical anaesthesia harnesses the powerful effects of drugs that act on the nervous system to render patients unconscious during surgery (general anaesthesia) and ameliorate pain (analgesia). Basic and clinical investigators in the Centre for Neuroscience are studying anaesthetic and analgesic actions from their interaction with receptors in the neuronal membrane to their clinical efficacy in patients.

More than 150 years since the advent of clinical anaesthesia new anaesthetics are developed largely by trial and error rather than by targeted drug design. Despite the skill of anaesthetists, general anaesthesia remains a risky proposition, particularly for the elderly, due to severe side effects such as respiratory depression and neurodegeneration. Only by fully elucidating interactions between anaesthetics and their sites of action within the CNS will there be significant improvements in their safety and efficacy. There is a strong tradition of basic and clinical anaesthesia research in the Centre for Neuroscience. Investigators use a range of molecular, electrophysiological and imaging techniques to investigate the mechanisms of general anaesthetics and analgesics.

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