Amnesia in the oprating room: a controlled study with diazepam (Valium) and morphine-scopolamine.

Psychic trauma in the operating room has been recognized for a long time, and the deleterious effects of being awake during local, spinal, or other regional block anesthesia have often precluded the use of block-type anesthesia even when the patient's condition has indicated it. In order to prevent trauma, it has been postulated that the patient might not be psychically traumatized if he was reasonably drowsy and did not have any unpleasant memories of the operation. It was on this premise that the following study was made.* A total of 44 patients were studied; 17 of whom received diazepam and 27 of whom received morphine-scopolamine. Criteria for the study included the following: 1. Patients had to be under the age of 60 years. 2. Patients had to be in the 1-3 risk