General anesthesia is closer to coma than sleep

According to a review published in the NEJM, patients undergoing general anesthesia before surgery are not "going to sleep" as their doctors probably told them, they are placed in a “reversible coma".


Three US neuroscientists took 3 years to research studies in general anestheisa, sleep and coma to understand how anesthetic drugs induce and maintain the behavioral states of general anesthesia. They discussed the clinical and neurophysiological features of general anesthesia and their relationships to sleep and coma, focusing on the neural mechanisms of unconsciousness induced by selected anesthetic drugs.


They conclude that better understanding of the the different states of the process would lead to new approaches to general anesthesia and improved diagnosis and treatment for sleep problems and emergence from coma.



Source: "General Anesthesia, Sleep, and Coma". New England J of Medicine 2010; 363:2638-2650 ( f/t via Athens)

Honey is better than children's cough medicine

In a US study to compare the effects of a single dose of buckwheat honey or honey-flavored dextromethorphan with no treatment on nocturnal cough and sleep difficulty associated with childhood upper respiratory tract infections, 130 children were randomly assigned to receive buckwheat honey or honey-flavoured dextromethorphan or no treatment before bedtime.

Parents were asked to answer questions about the child's cough and sleep difficulty and compared with the previous night when no treatment was given at all. They rated honey the most favorable relief of symptoms of their child's nocturnal cough and sleep difficulty. The study concluded that honey may be a preferable treatment for children's cough and sleep difficulty.

Source : "Effect of Honey, Dextromethorphan, and No Treatment on Nocturnal Cough and Sleep Quality for Coughing Children and Their Parents" Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. 2007;161(12):1140-1146 ( full text with Athens)