Category: US State of Connecticut

Source: US State of Connecticut

It’s been less than a year since the team behind “Feel Your Best Self” (FYBS) filmed their first series of videos for free classroom and home use. The vision was simple: to equip kids and their caregivers with coping skills for “things that feel yucky,” says Sandra M. Chafouleas, FYBS’s cofounder and Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of educational psychology. 

Now, thanks to a new partnership with The WNET Group, home of New York’s THIRTEEN — America’s flagship PBS station — more kids around the world will be able to engage with FYBS. THIRTEEN PBS has added FYBS video content to its weekday program Let’s Learn, a series for kids ages 3-7 dedicated to making learning fun. The episodes featuring FYBS will begin airing on television in early June and are currently live on the Let’s Learn website, free for parents, daycare providers, and educators to stream at any time.   

FYBS was born from a need for simple and accessible supplements to support social and emotional skills — a need which the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare. At the height of the pandemic, Chafouleas recalls, educators and families were under “so much stress,” especially concerning physical mitigation of disease risk.  

“But I’m a psychologist by training. So, our team was also asking ourselves, what is the emotional toll?” Chafouleas says. “We had a youth mental health problem before the pandemic, but it was kind of like opening Pandora’s box on what was being experienced. And when schools reopened, we knew that something simple and fun was needed to address emotion coping.” 

The program’s stars, CJ, Nico, and Mena, were up for the challenge — thanks to collaboration with the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry. Emily Wicks, FYBS cofounder and manager of operations and collections at the Ballard Institute, helped harness the talent of puppetry arts students and alumni to bring the FYBS vision to reality. 

In the FYBS toolkit (which is available for free online), the friendly puppets give life to emotion coping techniques like belly breathing, mindfulness, and connecting with others. The complete toolkit features videos of the puppets teaching these skills; strategy cards for each exercise; reflection sheets; facilitator guides; and a puppet-making workshop so kids can follow along with their own characters. 

Kid-facing materials are available in English and Spanish. According to Wicks, the program has received web traffic from countries around the world, with the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Mexico comprising the largest audiences. 

Since the FYBS toolkit went live, the response has been overwhelming. The program was featured on NPR Morning Edition in November 2022; this year, the team took home a Kidscreen award for “Best Web/App Series—Original” and four honors in the Telly Awards.  

More recently, FYBS was highlighted in a piece on Edutopia, a major resource and news hub for K-12 teachers owned and operated by the George Lucas Educational Foundation. The published content includes a video and accompanying article showcasing the FYBS curriculum in action, in the expert hands of educators at Natchaug Elementary School in Willimantic.

“When I first got here … there was a real focus on academic achievement, and on closing the gap, but there wasn’t really a focus on social/emotional wellness,” says Eben Jones, the school’s principal, in the Edutopia video. “Many students in our community have experienced some kind of trauma, and I think everybody benefits from understanding this role that your own emotional intelligence can play in your ability to learn.” 

As FYBS continues to expand, the team is fine-tuning and adapting the program based on user feedback gathered by Emily Iovino, FYBS implementation coordinator.  

The effort is a true cross-disciplinary collaboration at UConn, designed to captivate young minds and soothe big feelings. It takes “my world of the science of emotional regulation strategies,” says Chafouleas, and “merges that with the world of puppetry to engage creativity and imaginations and interest. FYBS is so much fun — across all ages, it sucks you right in.” 

Source: US State of Connecticut

Injuries to the nerves can blind or paralyze because adult nerve cells don’t regenerate their connections. Now, a team of UConn School of Medicine researchers report in Development that at least a small population of nerve cells exist in everyone that could be coaxed to regrow, potentially restoring sight and movement.

Glaucoma. Optic neuritis. Trauma or stroke of the optic nerve. All of these conditions can irreversibly damage the optic nerve, leading to blindness. Glaucoma alone affects more that 3 million people in the US. Nerve damage leading to paralysis is similarly common, with around 5 million people in the US living with some form of it, according to the Christopher Reeve Foundation.

Although blindness and paralysis may seem quite different, many types of these two conditions share the same underlying cause: nerves whose axons, the long fibers that connect the nerve to the brain or spinal cord, are severed and never grow back. Axons act like wires, conducting electrical impulses from various parts of the body to the central nervous system. If a wire is cut, it cannot transmit signals and the connection goes dead. Similarly, if the axons in the optic nerve cannot reach the brain, or the axons from your toe cannot connect to the spinal cord, you will not be able to see from that eye or move your toe.

Some animals can regrow axons, but mammals such as mice and humans cannot. It was assumed that mammals lack the immature nerve cells that would be needed. But a team of researchers in UConn School of Medicine neuroscientist Ephraim Trakhtenberg’s lab has found otherwise: in an April 24 paper in Development  they report the existence of neurons that behave similarly to embryonic nerve cells. They express a similar subset of genes, and can be experimentally stimulated to regrow long-distance axons that, under the right circumstances, could lead to healing some vision problems caused by nerve damage. The researchers also found two genes that were particularly active in these neurons during experimental axon regeneration, and found that activating them in injured neurons also promoted axon regeneration. They could be targets for future therapies. Trakhtenberg believes that similar immature nerve cells exist in regions of the brain outside the visual system too, and might also heal some features of paralysis under the right circumstances.

The right circumstances are difficult to provide, though. Once stimulated by a treatment, these embryonic-like nerve cells’ axons start to regrow in injured areas, but tend to stall before they reach their original targets.

Previous research has shown a combination of cell maturity, gene activity, signaling molecules within the axons, as well as scarring and inflammation in the injury site, all seem to inhibit axons from regrowing. Some therapies that target genes, signaling molecules, and injury site environment can encourage the axons to grow somewhat, but they rarely grow long enough.

Researchers in the Trakhtenberg lab began looking at how another type of cell, oligodendrocytes, were behaving. If axons are the wires of the nervous system, oligodendrocytes make the insulation. Called myelin, it insulates the axons and improves conductivity. It also—and this is key—prevents the axons from growing extra, extraneous connections.

Typically axons in embryos grow to their full length before they are coated with myelin. But postdoctoral fellow Agniewszka Lukomska, MD/Ph.D. student Bruce Rheume, graduate student Jian Xing, and Trakhtenberg found that in these injury sites, the cells that apply myelin start interacting with the regenerating axons shortly after they begin growing. That interaction, which precedes the insulation process, contributes to the axons stalling out, so that they never reach their targets. The researchers describe this finding in an April 27 paper in Development. 

The researchers suggest that a multi-pronged approach would be needed to fully regenerate injured axons. Therapies that target both the gene and signaling activity within the nerve cells would be necessary to encourage them to grow as an embryonic nerve cell would. And clearing the environment of inhibitory molecules and pausing oligodendrocytes from insulating would give the axons time to reconnect with their targets in the central nervous system before being myelinated. Then, treatments that encourage oligodendrocytes to myelinate the axons would complete the healing process.

The new insights into how axons grow could someday create a path for truly effective therapies for blindness, paralysis and other disorders caused by nerve damage. But for Trakhtenberg, the research has even deeper significance. It answers some of the big questions of how our nervous systems develop.

“If you succeed in regenerating injured neural circuits and restoring function, this would indicate that you are on the right track toward understanding how at least some parts of the brain work,” Trakhtenberg says.

The researchers are currently working on a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms behind both axon growth and interaction with oligodendrocytes.

This research was funded by  grants to Dr. Trakhtenberg from the NIH/NEI, the BrightFocus Foundation, and the Connecticut Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences.

Source: US State of Connecticut

Patrick Ridenhour, Chief of Police
Danbury, CT
Class of 2007

“I couldn’t have made a better choice than Charter Oak to complete my undergraduate degree. The challenging coursework has helped me think critically and excel in my profession. From the admissions office, to the academic advisors, to the knowledgeable and accessible instructors, Charter Oak put together a tremendous team that was there to help me every step of the way.”

Source: US State of Connecticut

On May 10 the University of Connecticut hosted the first The Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Research Day at its UConn Hartford campus.  This research day is a part of a series of events centered around TRHT and is sponsored by UConn’s Office for Diversity and Inclusion.

The cross-campus event featured research posters from UConn Health students, staff, and faculty that center on diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. Also, the event’s plenary talks featured UConn Health faculty and students.

The work of several faculty and students of The Cato T. Laurencin Institute for Regenerative Engineering shined at the TRHT inaugural research day.

The Cato T. Laurencin Institute at UConn School of Medicine has many programs and initiatives that revolve around solving health disparities. The institute reports on the scholarly progress of work to understand, address, and eliminate health disparities based on race and ethnicity.

Helen Wu, Ph.D., member of The Cato T. Laurencin Institute and associate professor of the Department of Psychiatry and Gualberto Ruaño, MD, Ph.D., assistant director for Special Projects at The Cato T. Laurencin Institute presented a number of posters in conjunction with students working at the Institute.

Sandro Cloiseau and Reiner Gonzalez, UConn students enrolled in The Cato T. Laurencin Institute Young Innovative Investigator Program (YIIP) presented their research in the domain of identifying and combatting health disparities.

The first poster was entitled: Successful Reduction of HBA1c in Older Blacks and Hispanics with Type 2 Diabetes. This study was aimed at examining associations between physical activity (PA) intensity levels and glycemic control in a home-based intervention program.

The second poster was entitled: Household Structure and food habits of Black and Hispanic Individuals during the Covid-19 Pandemic in Hartford, CT. They found a lack of access to nutritious and adequate food in the Hartford region.

The third poster was entitled: Building a Virtual Program to Improve Food Literacy in Health Professional Learners in Saint Lucia: Successes and Lessons. This was the first evaluation of food literacy knowledge among health professional students, reporting lower sugar and sodium guideline knowledge before training.

The final poster that was presented was entitled: Evaluating Experiential Food Literacy Learning in Young Black and Hispanic Individuals in a Community Setting. The study focused on households with children aged <8-18.

Other UConn Health participation at the event included a plenary talk delivered by Christopher Steele MD, MPH; Henry Siccardi MD, MPH; and Reiner Gonzalez, BS. Their session was entitled: From Burnside to Bedside: Overcoming Racism’s Impact on Healthcare.

Also, the Urban Services Track of CT AHEC at UConn Health presented their poster entitled Training in Culturally Competent Primary Care Delivery by Helen Wu, Biju Wang, Petra Clark-Dufner, Ellen Ravens-Seger, Robin H. Pugh Yi, and Bruce Gould.

In addition, UConn School of Nursing shared The Development of a Protocol to Assess Barriers and Facilitators to End-of-Life Care Among Blacks in an Urban Setting. The poster was presented by assistant clinical professor Amisha Parekh de Campos, PhD, MPH, RN, CHPN.

“The scholarship at our inaugural TRHT Research Day was comprehensive and has significant implications for how we move forward with education and providing equitable care to the people we serve,” shared Dr. Jeffrey F. Hines, UConn Health’s Chief Diversity Officer. “The discission and conversation following the presentations was indicative of the importance of this work. We look forward to the future work of our UConn Health faculty, staff, and students in this space.”

The TRHT Initiative is made possible by the American Association for Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF).

For more information on UConn’s TRHT visit: https://diversity.uconn.edu/TRHT.

Source: US State of Connecticut

Gregarious by nature, UConn Fire Chief William Perez isn’t one to send a friend’s call to voicemail if he can help it.

So when he saw a fellow Connecticut fire chief’s number pop up on his phone one day in January, he answered it even though he was in the airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, waiting for his flight home after vacation.

“He says to me, ‘Hey, Chief, congratulations!’ and I’m assuming he’s talking about something from a few months earlier. But then as we’re talking, he realizes I don’t even know what he’s congratulating me for,” Perez says with a laugh in his office recently in UConn University Safety’s headquarters.

He was in for a surprise: Waiting at home in his mailbox was a letter from the Connecticut State Firefighters Association, informing him that he had been selected as a Class of 2023 inductee into the Connecticut Firefighters Hall of Fame.

Perez was selected in recognition of his nearly 40-year career in emergency and fire service in Connecticut, including as a paramedic, front-line firefighter, and administrator while also teaching and serving on multiple commissions and boards.

He is among the few chiefs who have been named to the Hall of Fame while still working in the field; the majority have retired before receiving the honor or have been recognized posthumously. Perez is also believed to be one of few, and perhaps the first, of Hispanic heritage.

“I was honestly shocked, and so unbelievably honored,” Perez, 58, says of being selected. “The fact that someone even thought to nominate me is just amazing on its own. I never would have dreamed of this, and I’m so grateful.”

Perez began his career in emergency services in 1987 as an EMT (emergency medical technician) in Bridgeport, advancing to become a paramedic, then field supervisor, and eventually the operations supervisor.

He joined the East Hartford Fire Department in 1993 as a firefighter/paramedic and moved up there over the years as well, retiring in 2018 as assistant fire chief after 25 years of service, including a period as acting fire chief.

He joined UConn that year as its fire chief, saying his new public safety colleagues and throughout the University made the transition easy with their welcoming approach and the department’s long record of success.

“I love the energy of working on campus, and the teamwork and professionalism displayed here is remarkable,” Perez says.

Perez has been teaching paramedic and fire service programs in Connecticut for almost 30 years and is also an adjunct instructor at the National Fire Academy in Maryland, from which he holds an Executive Fire Officer designation.

He’s an example of the adage that good things come in threes: In addition to the Hall of Fame honor, Perez, recently received the 2022 Connecticut Fire Department Instructors Association’s “Richard Platt Sylvia Instructor of the Year” award. A few months later, Gov. Ned Lamont appointed him to the Connecticut Commission on Fire Prevention and Control.

In addition to being active in the other groups, Perez is involved in the Capitol Region Fire Chiefs Association, Capitol Region Emergency Planning Committee, Capitol Region Hazardous Materials Response Team, and North Central Emergency Medical Services Board of Directors.

He has also served on advisory committees for the paramedic program at Capital Community College, where he is an instructor, and emergency management and homeland security programs of Post University and Goodwin College.

Perez, who grew up in Bridgeport, also is a U.S. Navy veteran who served as a hospital corpsman and performed active duty during Operations Iraqi Freedom, Noble Eagle, and Enduring Freedom.

When not working, Perez and his wife, Manchester Fire Lt. Moira Milton Perez, often visit her family’s 24-square-mile Milton Ranch in Roundup, Montana, where Perez helps tend to their 1,000 organic free-range black angus cattle and where they plan to eventually retire.

He holds his associate degree in paramedic sciences from Capital Community College; a bachelor’s of science from Charter Oak State College; a master’s in public administration from Anna Maria College; and a doctorate in education from University of Hartford.

Source: US State of Connecticut

A new study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution predicts when and where climate change is likely to expose species across the globe to potentially dangerous and unprecedented temperatures.

The research team – from the University of Connecticut, University College London, the University of Cape Town, and the University at Buffalo – analyzed data from over 35,000 species of animals (including mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds, corals, fish, whales, and plankton) and seagrasses from every continent and ocean basin, alongside climate projections running up to the year 2100.

The researchers investigated when areas within each species’ geographical range will cross a threshold of thermal exposure, defined as the time when temperatures consistently exceed the most extreme temperatures experienced by a species across its geographic range over recent history (1850-2014).

“Our most critical finding was that when a species starts to be exposed to unprecedented temperatures, it happens in a coordinated way across most of the range at once. Across almost all the 35,000 species examined! That could mean that species have little opportunity to move or evolve, compared to a scenario where exposure is gradual,” says UConn Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology researcher Cory Merow.

Once the thermal exposure threshold is crossed, the species is not necessarily going to die out, but there is no evidence that it is able to survive the higher temperatures – that is, the abrupt loss of habitat due to future climate change could be disastrous for many species.

“We focused on exposure to thermal risk because it’s something we know we can forecast well. We’re not sure what a species’ responses to that risk will be, but we can use our forecasts to prioritize monitoring to determine those responses,” says Merow.

The researchers found a consistent trend that for many animals, the thermal exposure threshold will be crossed for much of their geographic range within the same decade.

Lead author Alex Pigot from the University College London Centre for Biodiversity & Environment Research, UCL Biosciences says:

“It is unlikely that climate change will gradually make environments more difficult for animals to survive in. Instead, for many animals, large swathes of their geographic range are likely to become unfamiliarly hot in a short span of time. While some animals may be able to survive these higher temperatures, many other animals will need to move to cooler regions or evolve to adapt, which they likely cannot do in such short timeframes. Our findings suggest that once we start to notice that a species is suffering under unfamiliar conditions, there may be very little time before most of its range becomes inhospitable, so it’s important that we identify in advance which species may be at risk in coming decades.”

The researchers found that the extent of global warming makes a big difference: if the planet warms by 1.5°C, 15% of species they studied will be at risk of experiencing unfamiliarly hot temperatures across at least 30% of their existing geographic range in a single decade, but this doubles to 30% of species at 2.5°C of warming.

“Our study is yet another example of why we need to urgently reduce carbon emissions to mitigate the harmful effects climate change is having on animals and plants, and avoid a massive extinction crisis,” says Pigot.

The researchers hope their study could help with targeting conservation efforts, as their data provides an early warning system showing when and where particular animals are likely to be at risk.

A previous study by the same lead authors found that even if the progress of climate change is halted, so that global temperatures peak and start to decline, the risks to biodiversity could persist for decades after. In another analysis similar to the current study, they found that many species facing unfamiliar temperatures will be living alongside other animals experiencing similar temperature shocks, which could pose grave risks to local ecosystem function.

“The next phase of our research plan is to develop this for all species across the planet as part of an automated global monitoring program powered by NASA satellite observations of extreme events,” says Merow. “This work is just the tip of the iceberg.”

The study was supported by the Royal Society, the Natural Environment Research Council, the National Science Foundation (US), the African Academy of Sciences, and NASA.

Source: US State of Connecticut

The Gilman Scholarship, a prestigious academic award congressionally funded through the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs at the State Department, has been awarded to 11 UConn students for the current application cycle. The funding supports broadening student participation in study abroad programs and encourages travel to diverse locations around the globe, along with intensive language study and internship experiences.

“We are thrilled to see our campus outreach efforts and student advising for the Gilman scholarship result in this level of success,” says Valerie Jenkelunas, Experiential Global Learning (EGL) advisor and community liaison specialist. “We had a total of 26 students apply from UConn, and 11 were chosen for awards between $3,000 and $5,000. This surpasses the statistical average of applicants awarded nationally.”

With more than 13,000 applicants from over 450 colleges each year, the Gilman Scholarship program is a highly competitive scholarship. Approximately one in four applicants are selected to receive the scholarship.

Each Gilman Scholar is also required to complete a service project upon their return from studying abroad in their campus or home community, with the goal of sharing the value of participation in study abroad and promoting the scholarship to prospective students. Applications are reviewed with consideration for the proposed follow-on service project.

Eligibility for the Gilman Scholarship requires undergraduate students to be Pell Grant-eligible, United States citizens who plan to study abroad for academic credit, through a program approved by their home institution. Supporting students with high financial need provides access to students who are historically under-represented in study abroad, including first-generation college students, STEM majors, ethnic and racial minority students, students with disabilities, LGBTQ+ students, and others who experience barriers to participation.

Students from underrepresented areas of the U.S. are also considered during the application process and this year there are recipients from all 50 states.

UConn students are from an area of the nation that is highly represented in study abroad, making their award status even more impressive, considering the many colleges and universities in New England, including the ivy leagues.

The following UConn students were selected as Gilman scholars and they are listed with their proposed follow-on service project:

Rebekah Bacon ’25 (CLAS), a psychology major from Stamford, who will study in the summer of 2023 in the Interdisciplinary Ethnography Field School program in Flic-en-Flac, Mauritius. She will provide outreach to underrepresented students at UConn Stamford.

Zarria Bethea ’24 (CAHNR), an allied health science major, who will take part in the Summer Mediterranean Diet and Tuscan Cuisine program, in Florence, Italy, in the summer of 2023. She will provide outreach to students from the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Leadership and Academic Enhancement Program.

Kayla Dubbs ’24 (CAHNR), an environmental science major from Fairfield, who will study at the Umbra Institute, in Perugia, Italy, in the fall of 2023. She will provide outreach to environmental sciences majors.

Valerie Duque ’24 (CLAS) a psychological sciences major from Stratford, who will participate in the Neuroscience in Salamanca program in Spain, during the summer of 2023. She will provide outreach to students in UConn’s Community Outreach programs.

Victoria Amy Eweka ’24 (CLAS), a psychology major with a minor in information technology, who will study during the 2023-24 academic year at the University of Konstanz in Germany. She will provide outreach to German language classes and demonstrate the value of studying abroad through art.

Sarah Khouja ’25 (ED), an elementary education major from Stratford, who will study at the Umbra Institute, in Perugia, Italy, in the summer of 2023. She will provide outreach to Stratford-area high school students.

Alexandra Luhrs ’24 (NUR), a nursing major from Bethel, who is participating in the End of Life Palliative Care program in in the spring of 2023 in Ghent, Belgium. She will provide outreach to students in the School of Nursing.

Yelena Muralles ’25 (CLAS), an international relations and French major from New Haven, who will study at Lund University in Sweden for the 2023-24 academic year. She will provide outreach to students in the Academic Center for Exploratory Students.

Patrick Murphy ’24 (CLAS), an individualized major from Manchester, who will participate in the Summer Field Ecology in South Africa program, in the Limpopo province of South Africa in the summer of 2024. He will outreach to students in the individualized majors program.

Kasidy Quiles ’23 (CAHNR), a global studies and allied health major from Shelton, who will participate in the Summer Neuroscience in Salamanca program the summer of 2023 in Salamanca, Spain. She will outreach to students in Bridgeport community participating in the Bridgeport Caribe Youth Leaders program.

Julio Tozetto ’25 (CAHNR), a natural resources major from Branford, who will participate in the Organization for Tropical Studies African Ecology and Conservation program in fall 2023 at Kruger National Park in South Africa. He will outreach to Branford High School students enrolled in STEM courses.

Source: US State of Connecticut

Some patients can have vivid and detailed sexual hallucinations during anesthesia with sedative-hypnotic drugs like propofol, midazolam, diazepam and nitrous oxide. Some make suggestive or sexual comments or act out, such as grabbing or kissing medical professionals or touching themselves in a sexual way. Others awaken erroneously believing they were sexually assaulted. Why does this happen?

Doctors have long known that sedative-hypnotic drugs, which slow down brain activity to induce calm or sleep, can affect a patient’s perception of reality. A 1984 review of the drugs midazolam, ketamine and thiopental found that 18% of patients receiving anesthesia for a dental or medical procedure had a hard time distinguishing reality from fantasy during and shortly after administration. Similarly, a 1980 study found that around 14% of patients report some sexual dreaming or arousal while under anesthesia. It’s no surprise that together these two features of anesthesia could sometimes manifest in sexual hallucinations.

There have been rare cases in which medical professionals used a patient’s unconscious state to commit sexual assault. For instance, in 1991, a health professional sexually assaulted a university student under anesthesia. Although the case was initially dismissed on the grounds that the patient could have had a drug-induced sexual hallucination, genetic evidence the health professional left behind later led to his conviction. It cannot be assumed that all cases of reported sexual assault under anesthesia are due to a sexual hallucination.

We are pharmacology researchers who recently reviewed the medical literature on sexual assault or sexual fantasy during anesthesia from the earliest documented case to February 2023, finding 87 reported cases from 17 published papers. Better understanding what triggers unpleasant or sexual dreams under anesthesia could help researchers figure out how to reduce the risk of hallucinations to keep both patients and providers safe.

Reports of Sexual Hallucinations

Sixteen of the individual cases we found in our review involved patients reporting sexually amorous behavior or perceived sexual assault. In these cases, observers like health professionals or family members were also present during the procedure, reducing the chance that the sexual behavior actually occurred versus being hallucinated.

We also found a striking match between the anatomic location of the procedure and where the patient perceived inappropriate sexual contact. Procedures involving the mouth were perceived as oral sex, squeezing a ball to make a vein more accessible as squeezing a penis, chest procedures as breast fondling and groin procedures as vaginal penetration.

This may explain why one assessment of 200 patients found no cases of sexual hallucination for those undergoing gallbladder or appendix procedures involving the abdomen, but around 12% of those undergoing vaginal procedures noted amorous or sexually disinhibited behavior.

Trauma for Both Patients and Providers

These anesthesia effects can have major real-world impacts on patients and providers that last long after the surgery.

The emotional turmoil a patient undergoes is likely the same whether actually experiencing sexual assault under anesthesia or having vivid hallucinations of the event. And practitioners too can experience distress: Some medical professionals accused of real or perceived sexual assault have been brought before regulatory boards or the courts and lose their license to practice.

It is possible that if patients knew a hallucination of sexual assault is a rare but possible adverse effect of anesthesia before they receive it, and were aware of the steps medical providers are taking to reduce that risk, they would be less likely to believe their sexual hallucinations were real. But this would not lessen the trauma of the hallucination. In one case, an anesthesiology student volunteered in a study where she experienced sexual hallucination after taking sedative-hypnotics. Although she knew her vivid memories of the sexual assault weren’t real, the distress she felt over them led her to withdraw from the study.

In our review of the literature, we found 71 individual cases in which the medical professional was alone with the patient at the time of the alleged sexual assault or sexual behavior. For the safety and well-being of both patients and medical professionals, having witnesses in the room or recording devices during dental or medical procedures could help prevent an opportunity for sexual assault and reassure patients that the hallucinations they may experience are not real.

However, the health care system needs to go further to protect patients. Patients struggling with the trauma of hallucinated sexual assault, even if there is evidence that it did not occur in reality, should be referred to counseling and supported just like someone who was physically harmed during a medical or dental procedure.

Many Unknowns Remain

What makes some people more likely to recall their dreams while under anesthesia is unclear. A 2009 study of 97 patients receiving propofol reported that those who frequently remember their dreams after anesthesia received higher doses of anesthetics, were younger than 50 years old and took longer to recover from anesthesia. A 2013 study of 200 patients receiving propofol found that men were more likely to remember dreams after anesthesia but women were more likely to remember unpleasant dreams. While dreaming and hallucinations are related experiences, people experiencing hallucinations believe they could plausibly be real.

While we reviewed all published cases of sexual hallucinations in the medical literature, the actual incidence of anesthesia-induced sexual hallucinations remains unknown. Given the decades that have passed since the first reported cases, more work needs to be done. Data from a very large sample size of patients will be required to understand the prevalence of sexual hallucinations under anesthesia. However, drug companies are reluctant to spend money on research that may show that their drugs cause adverse side effects.

Finally, though we limited our review to reports of sexual hallucinations during anesthesia, millions of Americans use other prescription sedative-hypnotic drugs. Benzodiazepines like alprazolam (Xanax) and temazepam (Restoril) are used to treat anxiety and induce sleep. Z-drugs like zolpidem (Ambien) and eszopiclone (Lunesta) as well as suvorexant (Belsomra) and sodium oxybate (Xyrem) are also used to induce sleep. Opioids like morphine and oxycodone and gabapentinoids like gabapentin (Neurontin) and pregabalin (Lyrica) are used to treat pain. Muscle relaxers like carisoprodol (Soma) and cyclobenzaprine (Flexeril) are used for muscle spasms. All of these drugs have had reported cases of patients experiencing hallucinations while taking them.

In a review of the FDA Adverse Events Reporting System, which public health officials and researchers use to monitor drug safety, 30,728 cases of “abnormal dreaming” were reported from 1974 through 2022. Most involved sedative-hypnotic drugs treating insomnia, anxiety, pain and muscle spasms. The reports do not specify the nature of these dreams, or how they affected the patient’s own perceived well-being.

It is important for patients to be aware that abnormal dreaming is a possibility when starting a sedative-hypnotic medication, and to inform their health professional if they experience hallucinations. These symptoms could indicate that the drug is not the right choice for you or that the dose may be too high.