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Vegetative patients may have more awareness than believed
Chicago, Oct 30: A small study suggests that somebrain-damaged, vegetative patients may have greater awarenessthan doctors previously thought.
Chicago, Oct 30: A small study suggests that some
brain-damaged, vegetative patients may have greater awareness
than doctors previously thought.
The findings could have a bearing on right-to-die
cases such as the one involving Terri Schiavo, who suffered
severe brain damage in 1990 and is the subject of a family
dispute in Florida over whether she should remain alive.
The researcher who conducted the study said the results could lead to changes in how patients like Schiavo are diagnosed and treated.
Other scientists call the work provocative but far from proof, and say the findings would need to be duplicated in larger studies before they could be put into routine practice. The study involved just four severely brain-damaged patients who appeared to have been in vegetative states for at least a year. Electrodes placed on their heads detected brain waves indicating some level of awareness in three of the patients when they were presented with nonsensical sentences, said brain researcher John Connolly of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
He said he has found similar results in about 20 other patients.
The findings should be interpreted cautiously but not discounted because sometimes significant research "starts with small observations," said Dr David Good, a Wake Forest University neurologist who was not involved in Connolly`s study.
Bureau Report
The researcher who conducted the study said the results could lead to changes in how patients like Schiavo are diagnosed and treated.
Other scientists call the work provocative but far from proof, and say the findings would need to be duplicated in larger studies before they could be put into routine practice. The study involved just four severely brain-damaged patients who appeared to have been in vegetative states for at least a year. Electrodes placed on their heads detected brain waves indicating some level of awareness in three of the patients when they were presented with nonsensical sentences, said brain researcher John Connolly of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
He said he has found similar results in about 20 other patients.
The findings should be interpreted cautiously but not discounted because sometimes significant research "starts with small observations," said Dr David Good, a Wake Forest University neurologist who was not involved in Connolly`s study.
Bureau Report