Does anesthesia affect your memory?

Question

Ive had a lot of anesthesia when i was young(general). I believe i had photographic memory but nowadays i cant seem to memorize things easily, could it possibly be affected?

Answer 1

Some anaesthetics are "amnestic," meaning that they tend to block short-term memories from being formed even when they do not actually produce unconsciousness.  This can be quite striking--we often give kids "conscious sedation" for things like reducing fractures or placing PICC lines or other such interventions and we always have to keep the parents out of the room when we do it because the kid will scream like a banshee but will have absolutely no memory of the experience afterwards.  

This should not extend to problems in memory after the drug wears off.  If you think that your memory or your concentration has changed for the worse, you should see your doctor.

Answer 2

I don't remember how bad of an effect this can have.

Answer 3

Yes

Elderly people should not be anesthetized because it often leads to permanent memory loss for the elderly.

Some anesthetics may work by causing you to forget the pain. This is a good memory loss. Some are concerned that a part of your subconscious may remember causing possible subconscious psychological damage, but I understand this is only conjecture.

For a young healthy person it should not cause any noticeable memory loss.

Answer 4

Anethesia can actually affect your memory by making your forgetting stuff and like for instance your in a conversation and then all of the sudden you blank out and forget the whole conversation you had..which sucks...i know some one that has that but he is suprivsed so its all good  i guess.

have you ever seen a doctor?