Mark Chae, Ph.D., a researcher and former professor from East Brunswick, New Jersey, taught in the graduate program for Community and Rehabilitation Counseling at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, now the Rutgers School of Biomedical and Health Sciences. Before his career as an educator and researcher, Mark Chae, Ph.D. attended Columbia University, where he earned a master of arts in applied psychology and a master of science in psychological counseling.
In February 2021, Columbia University researchers discovered information related to the effects of prolonged anesthesia on cognitive ability. The research resulted from reports from the families, revealing that their loved one was not “quite the same” after they underwent medically-induced comas to be treated for COVID-19. Incidentally, this is considered a life-saving procedure that millions undergo every year. However, researchers at Columbia discovered that there are lingering effects of being under for so long.
Prolonged anesthesia takes the brain to a state of deep unconsciousness, and it has been long known that this leads to cognitive impairment associated with memory loss and confusion. However, this was the first study to research the effect of prolonged anesthesia on neural pathways (cognition).
The actual study involved setting up an ICU platform for mice, where mice were given continuous anesthesia for up to 40 hours. Using advanced neuroimaging, researchers were able to visualize live but microscopic brain structures. This allowed researchers to study areas in the brain associated with processing bodily sensations. Ultimately, researchers found that prolonged anesthesia does alter the brain’s neural structure, regardless of age.
This study is the first in several studies that would have to establish validity for this finding. According to an article appearing on the Columbia news site, researchers would need to assess different and widely used anesthetics, in addition to anesthetics given to patients systematically, to conclude whether this finding is valid.
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