Severe brain injury and paralysis temporarily reversed with a sleeping pill
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Re: Severe brain injury and paralysis temporarily reversed with a sleeping pill
#2Re: Severe brain injury and paralysis temporarily reversed with a sleeping pill
#3What happens when the sleeping pill wears off? Does the patient revert to his previous state until administered another dose, or does a single dose permanently change the patient?
Re: Severe brain injury and paralysis temporarily reversed with a sleeping pill
#4Zolpidem is famous for this, although it’s raised more questions than answers. This particular phenomenon has been known since the early 2000s; NYT has a good write up about it: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/magazine/can-ambien-wake-...
Re: Severe brain injury and paralysis temporarily reversed with a sleeping pill
#5What happens when the sleeping pill wears off? Does the patient revert to his previous state until administered another dose, or does a single dose permanently change the patient?
It would seem they revert back to their previous state, since it mentions 'temporary'
Re: Severe brain injury and paralysis temporarily reversed with a sleeping pill
#6What happens when the sleeping pill wears off? Does the patient revert to his previous state until administered another dose, or does a single dose permanently change the patient?
They revert when it wears off.
Re: Severe brain injury and paralysis temporarily reversed with a sleeping pill
#7What happens when the sleeping pill wears off? Does the patient revert to his previous state until administered another dose, or does a single dose permanently change the patient?
Essentially they come back to life for a bit and then slither back to their vegetative state.
Re: Severe brain injury and paralysis temporarily reversed with a sleeping pill
#8What happens when the sleeping pill wears off? Does the patient revert to his previous state until administered another dose, or does a single dose permanently change the patient?
> After consultation with his family, a single dose of zolpidem (10 mg) was administered by the nursing home physician. This dose is frequently used for patients with persistent hyporesponsive disorders (Bomalaski et al., 2017). Within 20 min, the patient started communicating spontaneously, asking the nurse how his wheelchair was to be operated, and requesting fast food. He managed to walk while being supported by the staff and phoned his father, who had not heard his son's voice for years. Despite evident retrograde amnesia, going back three years before the brain injury, and an apparent hearing deficit, he was cheerful, alert, and showing interest in the people and objects surrounding him.
> Two hours after zolpidem administration, he gradually fell back into his diminished motivational state.
Re: Severe brain injury and paralysis temporarily reversed with a sleeping pill
#9Things like these makes me realize how little we know about the functioning of brain. Manipulating brain digitally would be perhaps one of the biggest technological revolution after industrial revolution.
Re: Severe brain injury and paralysis temporarily reversed with a sleeping pill
#10Sci-Hub link: https://sci-hub.do/10.1016/j.cortex.2020.08.011