ArticlePsychopharmacology2015
Differential effects of general anesthetics on anxiety-like behavior in formalin-induced pain: involvement of ERK activation in the anterior cingulate cortex.
Article in Psychopharmacology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05008939 (Subanesthetic Sevoflurane for Treatment-Resistant Depression), which is not on this map. Cited by 12 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Subanesthetic Sevoflurane for Treatment-Resistant Depression: A Proof-of-Concept Trial
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Vagal nerve TRPV3 regulates sedative-mediated appeasement.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Repeated Administrations of Polyphenolic Extracts Prevent Chronic Reflexive and Non-Reflexive Neuropathic Pain Responses by Modulating Gliosis and CCL2-CCR2/CX3CL1-CX3CR1 Signaling in Spinal Cord-Injured Female Mice.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- General anesthesia activates a central anxiolytic center in the BNST.Cell reports · 2024Article
- Differences in the neural basis and transcriptomic patterns in acute and persistent pain-related anxiety-like behaviors.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2023Article
- Postconditioning with Sevoflurane or Propofol Alleviates Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Neuroinflammation but Exerts Dissimilar Effects on the NR2B Subunit and Cognition.Molecular neurobiology · 2021Article
- Receptor for advanced glycation end products up-regulation in cerebral endothelial cells mediates cerebrovascular-related amyloid β accumulation after Porphyromonas gingivalis infection.Journal of neurochemistry · 2021Article
- Identification of potential biomarkers for abdominal pain in IBS patients by bioinformatics approach.BMC gastroenterology · 2021Article
- Early-Life Multiple Sevoflurane Exposures Alleviate Long-term Anxiety-Like Behaviors in Mice via the proBDNF/ERK Pathway.Molecular neurobiology · 2021Article
- Bioinformatic Analysis of Potential Biomarkers for Spinal Cord-injured Patients with Intractable Neuropathic Pain.The Clinical journal of pain · 2018Article
- Intentional and unintentional impacts of anaesthesia: insights from experiments in pain and injury.Neural regeneration research · 2017Article
- Short-Term and Long-Term Effects of Dexamethasone on Cognitive Dysfunction Induced by Sevoflurane in Adult Rats.Turkish journal of anaesthesiology and reanimation · 2017Article
- Sinomenine attenuates chronic inflammatory pain in mice.Metabolic brain disease · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
rationalePain-related anxiety and depression are well known to be comorbid with chronic pain and adversely affect patient quality of life. Recent studies have shown that anxiety-like behaviors also develop with acute surgical pain, but the effects of general anesthetics on acute pain-related anxiety are unknown.
objectiveThe present study aimed to compare the effects of different general anesthetics on anxiety-like behaviors that follow formalin-induced acute pain in a rat model.
methodsFormalin-induced acute inflammatory pain was established by intraplantar injection of 1% formalin without anesthesia or with anesthesia using the clinical anesthetics sevoflurane, propofol, or pentobarbital sodium. Anxiety-like behaviors were studied using the open-field test and elevated plus maze. Phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (p-ERK) 1/2 expression in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and spinal cord was examined using immunohistochemistry.
resultsAnxiety-like behaviors were observed at 24 and 72 h post-formalin injection. Concomitantly, p-ERK 1/2 expression was upregulated in the ACC at 1 and 24 h post-formalin injection. While all three general anesthetics effectively blocked nociceptive responses and activation of ERK in the rat ACC following formalin injection during anesthesia, only sevoflurane inhibited ERK activation in the spinal cord and ACC at 24 h post-injection.
conclusionsThis study suggests that sevoflurane, but not intravenous anesthetics, inhibits pain-related anxiety, along with ERK activation in the ACC, probably through inhibition of spinal nociceptive transmission. Intraoperative application of inhaled anesthetics may be a better choice to reduce postoperative anxiety.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.