The Mind Numbing Medicine

Curious Cases

BBC

Technology, Science

4.8 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2023

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode will render you oblivious, conked out and blissfully unaware. It’s about anaesthetics: those potent potions that send you into a deep, deathly sleep. Listener Alicia wants to know how they work, so our sleuths call on the expertise of consultant anaesthetist Dr Fiona Donald. Fiona shares her experience from the clinical frontline, and explains what we do and don’t know about how these chemicals work their mind-numbing magic. We hear about ground-breaking research led by Professor Irene Tracey, which reveals how a pattern of slow brain waves can be used to determine the optimum dosage of these dangerous drugs. And finally, Drs Rutherford and Fry wonder: what does all this tell us about normal consciousness? Professor Anil Seth shares how we can use brain tech to measure different levels of conscious awareness – from sleepy to psychedelic. Presenters: Hannah Fry and Adam Rutherford Producer: Ilan Goodman

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, Curios. Another show, penultimate one of this particular run, and it's a very mysterious one today.
0:06.6	Another one in the category of stuff that we don't really understand.
0:09.9	Hmm. I mean, kind of giving away the entire episode there, Adam.
0:13.4	Sure. It's not a secret.
0:16.6	It is mad, though, that we knock people out with, um, we drugs and don't know how we're doing it.
0:21.9	So this is an episode we should explain. It's about anesthetics and how they work.
0:32.1	Today's investigation is an absolute knockout literally.
0:36.0	Yes, by the end of this, you should be blissfully unaware of the pain you've been through.
0:39.6	Because we had a question come in from two different listeners.
0:42.7	Alicia Nissen, a train driver in New South Wales, Australia,
0:45.7	and Neil Morton from Sterling in Scotland.
0:48.4	And they both emailed CuriosCases at BBC.co.uk asking how do anesthetics work?
0:54.1	I know this one. Someone in a white coat injects you and you wake up handcuffed to an orangutan
0:59.3	in the cargo hold of a plane on its way to Jakarta, case sold.
1:02.4	I don't know. Pretty sure that was your stag to, I think you're describing that.
1:06.2	No, how do they actually work? So how, what's going on in the body?
1:10.4	Have you ever had one, by the way, in anger?
1:12.6	Not not. In a hospital environment, yes. Just once.
1:17.0	I loved it. I absolutely loved it. I've just had my wisdom taken out.
1:21.5	The cold sensation as the stuff runs up your arm and then waking up
1:27.2	several hours later, not with four teeth short and not knowing what the hell have gone.
1:31.4	I know you've had one because you phoned me,
	...

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