Biochemical Mechanism of Action
The biochemical mechanism of action of general anaesthetics is not yet well understood. To induce unconsciousness, anaesthetics affect the GABA and NMDA systems. For example, halothane is a GABA agonist, and ketamine is an NMDA receptor antagonist.
Read more about this topic: General Anaesthesia
Famous quotes containing the words mechanism and/or action:
“When one of us dies of cancer, loses her mind, or commits suicide, we must not blame her for her inability to survive an ongoing political mechanism bent on the destruction of that human being. Sanity remains defined simply by the ability to cope with insane conditions.”
—Ana Castillo (b. 1953)
“The bugle-call to arms again sounded in my war-trained ear, the bayonets gleamed, the sabres clashed, and the Prussian helmets and the eagles of France stood face to face on the borders of the Rhine.... I remembered our own armies, my own war-stricken country and its dead, its widows and orphans, and it nerved me to action for which the physical strength had long ceased to exist, and on the borrowed force of love and memory, I strove with might and main.”
—Clara Barton (18211912)