Which preoperative medication is used to ease anxiety and produce amnesia?

Which preoperative medication is used to ease anxiety and produce amnesia?

• A. Benzo (correct)
• B. Atropine
• C. Glycopyrrolate
• D. H2 blocker

Answer: (A)

A benzodiazepine is used preoperatively to ease anxiety and produce amnesia because it enhances the effect of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA at the GABA-A receptor. This leads to sedation, anxiolysis, and anterograde amnesia, helping the patient feel calm before surgery and remember little of the perioperative events. A common example is midazolam given IV, which has a rapid onset and short duration, allowing titration to the desired level of sedation. The other options don’t provide these effects. Anticholinergics like atropine or glycopyrrolate reduce secretions and can prevent bradycardia, but they don’t calm anxiety or cause memory loss. An H2 blocker reduces gastric acidity but has no role in sedation or amnesia.

A benzodiazepine is used preoperatively to ease anxiety and produce amnesia because it enhances the effect of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA at the GABA-A receptor. This leads to sedation, anxiolysis, and anterograde amnesia, helping the patient feel calm before surgery and remember little of the perioperative events. A common example is midazolam given IV, which has a rapid onset and short duration, allowing titration to the desired level of sedation.

The other options don’t provide these effects. Anticholinergics like atropine or glycopyrrolate reduce secretions and can prevent bradycardia, but they don’t calm anxiety or cause memory loss. An H2 blocker reduces gastric acidity but has no role in sedation or amnesia.