SOME people end up doing some pretty bizarre things while under anaesthetic, research has shown.
From making sexual comments to kissing doctors, the sedative-hypnotic drugs can warp people's sense of reality.
Others awaken from procedures believing they were sexually assaulted – which is, more often than not, untrue.
Doctors have long known about the unusual side effects of the medicines.
In fact, a 1984 review found that 18 per cent of people receiving anaesthesia during dental or medical operations struggled to distinguish reality from fantasy during and shortly after administration.
Meanwhile, a 1980 study found that around 14 per cent of patients report some sexual dreaming or arousal while under anaesthesia.
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According to pharmacology researchers Melody White and Dr C Michael White from the University of Connecticut, US, these drugs slow the brain down and often lead to sexual thoughts – but experts don't know why.
Some people act out or touch themselves in a sexual way, which can be uncomfortable for the medic, they explained.
Or, the patient believes they've been sexually assaulted while sedated and likely goes through the same vivid hallucinations of the event, despite whether it happened or not.
Both can have a significant real-world impact on patients and providers that last long after the surgery.
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Some medical professionals accused of actual or perceived sexual assault have been brought to court and stripped of their license to practice.
To try and figure out why people are experiencing these dreams, the scientists reviewed all published cases of sexual hallucinations in the medical literature.
Writing in the Conversation, they said they found a "striking match" between where the surgery or procedure took place 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.
"While chest procedures as breast fondling and groin procedures as vaginal penetration," they explained.
They also recalled the findings of a 2009 study, which found those more likely to experience sexual hallucinations received higher doses of anaesthetics and were younger than 50 years old.
There have also been reports of people experiencing similar hallucinations while taking sleeping and anti-anxiety pills like alprazolam and temazepam, which are also sedative-hypnotics.
They stressed the importance for patients to be aware that abnormal dreaming is a possibility when starting a sedative-hypnotic medication.
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