Anesthetics as emerging therapeutics for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): bridging bench and bedside.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severe psychiatric disorder that develops in the months and years following exposure to severe trauma. Despite growing research, there remain gaps in understanding the full pathophysiology of PTSD, so that treatments are not universally effective, contributing to a significant public health burden. Therefore, it is necessary to explore novel therapeutic approaches. Anesthetics have recently been shown as a novel therapeutic agent with promising results in the treatment of PTSD. This review summarizes key mechanisms of anesthetics, including N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists, α2-adrenergic receptor agonists, Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA)-A Receptor-related anesthetics and opioids, and their translational potential to treatment of PTSD.