Patients reveal disturbing sexual fantasies caused by common medical practice carried out on 40m a year

Popular drugs administered before surgery can cause patients to suffer from disturbing and hyper realistic sexual fantasies, doctors warn.

These terrifying episodes cause hallucinations can blur the boundary between dream and reality, sometimes leaving patients confused, emotionally shaken for what can be years. 

Some patients become convinced they were assaulted by their doctor.

Dr Gary Wenk, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Ohio State University, told DailyMail.com that doctors and patients should be more aware of the little-known side effect of anesthesia.

He adds: ‘Although the reported incidence is apparently quite low, the experience may be under reported, especially by the female patients.’

The issue has been linked to the use of benzodiazepines, depressants that cause sedation and hypnosis, Propofol and ketamine, used to help patients relax or sleep before and during surgery, and nitric oxide, often administered during heart surgery to help relax blood vessels in the lungs.

The best analogy to explain this phenomenon Dr Wenk says, is dreaming. He explains that ‘people tend to dream about things they desire or fear’. 

However, ‘research has shown that dreaming and anesthesia produce different types of brain activity patterns.’

More than 40 million people undergo surgeries worldwide every year, so medical experts worry that this phenomenon could cause lasting psychological damage to patients and have professional repercussions for medical staff, if they are wrongly accused of assault. 

Some studies even suggest that up to 18 percent of patients may have difficulty distinguishing between reality and fantasy during or after anesthesia. 

The most common drug used for general anesthesia during surgery is Propofol, due to its rapid effect and good recovery profile, meaning that it leads to a faster return to normal consciousness. 

Dr Wenk warns in a piece for Psychology Today: ‘Health care professionals need to be aware of the potential risks to the patient and legal risks for themselves.’

Dr Wenk’s concerns come off the back of research out of the University of Connecticut, which looked at 87 cases.

The study revealed that four in ten of the reported sexual fantasies were associated with benzodiazepines and ‘dose played an important role’.

The sexual hallucinations only happened when the two benzodiazepines – midazolam and diazepam – were administered in doses that were ‘rather high’.

In another case, 110 dental surgery patients reported episodes of sexual visions or sexual arousal after being administered a ‘standard cocktail’ of drugs which included fentanyl, diazepam, and methohexital.

Among the patients, Dr Wenk notes that the nature of the sexual episodes varied, with 60 percent reporting that their visions happened during their surgery, while 13.3 percent said they had sexual dreams after returning home. 

Meanwhile, around 10 percent of patients said that experienced ‘unpleasant sexual hallucinations’ while in the recovery room.

The researchers noted that with many of the cases of this phenomenon happening, the ‘places of the body where procedures were conducted coincided with the area of the body where the patients perceived the sexual assault or fantasy occurred’. 

Some people reported that their sexual hallucinations took a dark turn and these unpleasant visions linked to sexual assault were most associated with the use of ketamine. 

‘One patient stated she would not undergo anesthesia again if ketamine was used,’ Dr Wenk writes. 

The majority of patients who reported disturbing sexual visions were women, Dr Wenk notes, while men had more agreeable hallucinations. 

Discussing this finding further, he told this website: ‘The males in the study often had positive sexual fantasies that occurred more often when their therapist was female. 

‘The females were more likely to experience hallucinations of sexual assault, especially if their therapist was a male (which was often the case). 

‘Statistically, by middle age, most females are victims of some sort of sexual assault. Indeed, that experience might be the reason they seek our medical treatment and then are given one of these sedative hypnotic drugs.’ 

Because of this difference between the sexes, the University of Connecticut researchers deduced that males complained about their drug-induced fantasies less often.

For instance, a high number of female patients – 12 percent out of 130 – undergoing anesthesia for procedures related to the reproductive system reported experiencing ‘amorous or disinhibited behaviors while sedated’. 

The researchers also found that the sex of the medical team also had an impact on patients having fantasies. 

Dr Wenk notes that in one of the reports featuring 300 predominantly male patients who were admitted for urological procedures focused on the urinary tract and male reproductive system, ‘none of them reported having a sexually related dream when the surgical team was all male’.

However, of 40 male patients who had female anesthesiologists, one of them reported having a dream about her during his procedure.

In his piece for Psychology Today, Dr Wenk warns that benzodiazepines and propofol were not the only drugs that produced sexual fantasies. 

He concludes: ‘Dopamine agonists, such as ADHD medications and stimulants, dopamine antagonists, such as antipsychotics, and some antidepressants have also produced sexual fantasies in some patients.

‘Dopamine-enhancing anti-Parkinson medications have been known to have a libido-stimulating effect in males.’ 

Meanwhile, the researchers of the original study signed off with a caution.

They wrote: ‘While sexual assault hallucinations or fantasies associated with sedative hypnotics are rare, it is imperative that health care providers take the necessary precautions and follow recommendations to provide safety for themselves and their patients.’

Dr Wenk told this website that the current recommendation is for doctors to warn the patient that such an experience could happen.

However, he notes that ‘the risk for both patient and therapist is that by warning that a hallucination could occur it might make it more likely for the patient to experience one. 

‘Sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy due to the power of suggestion. Each therapist will have to decide which approach is best for their patient.’