Awareness is often missed and dismissed by medical staff as it is a retrospective “diagnosis.” Patients experiencing awareness under general anesthesia may be at a risk for developing anxiety symptoms which may be transient or can lead to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Recent advances in the monitoring of anesthesia depth may help anesthesiologist to prevent awareness episodes, whereas knowledge and understanding of memory mechanisms may contribute to the development of novel tools to detect awareness. Early diagnosis of clinical symptoms would allow clinical psychologists and/or psychiatrists to choose a precocious intervention in order to increase the efficacy of the psychotherapeutic or medical treatments.

Pharmacological strategies should be also put in place in order to reduce awareness occurrence by controlling the stress response during anesthesia. We invite investigators to contribute with original research articles as well as review articles that will stimulate the continuing efforts to understand memory mechanisms and the development of strategies to avoid awareness episodes under anaesthesia and to diagnose, prevent, and treat PTSD disorder following awareness.

We are particularly interested in articles that explore aspects of awareness that could be useful for anaesthesiologists around the world to identify patients at risk of PTSD.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Memory models for understanding awareness mechanisms
• Neurophysiologic and pharmacological correlates of memory
• Advances in monitoring anaesthesia depth: EEG-derived measures
• Role of anesthetic management in modulating the occurrence of awareness episodes
• Role of surgical stress in affecting memory under anaesthesia
• Pharmacological highlights in suppressing stress response during surgery and anaesthesia
• Clinical evaluation and therapies for psychological consequences of awareness