Study Finds Cognition in Vegetative Patients

Wall Street Journal ^ | 2/4/10 | Amy Dockser Marcus

[wagglebee]

In a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, four of 23 patients diagnosed as being in a vegetative state showed signs of consciousness on brain-imaging tests.

Even more significantly, one patient was able to answer yes and no questions using the researchers' technique—indicating the potential for communication with people previously considered unresponsive.

Researchers at two centers, in England and Belgium, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tests on 54 patients with severe brain injury. Of these patients, 31 were diagnosed as being in a minimally conscious state, meaning they showed intermittent signs of awareness such as laughing or crying. The other 23 were diagnosed as being in a vegetative state, meaning they were considered unresponsive and unaware of their surroundings.

The study is part of a growing body of work changing how people think about the vegetative state. "There has been a kind of nihilism towards these patients. This represents a cultural shift," says Joseph J. Fins, chief of the medical-ethics division at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York. (Dr. Fins wasn't involved in the current study but is working with the researchers on a separate project looking at standardizing how brain injuries are assessed.)

[wagglebee]

"There has been a kind of nihilism towards these patients. This represents a cultural shift," says Joseph J. Fins

For too long they have been viewed as non-human.

[wagglebee]

Pro-Life Ping

[wagglebee]

Ping

[wagglebee]

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[CholeraJoe]

Researchers at two centers, in England and Belgium, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tests on 54 patients with severe brain injury.

And yet productive citizens in those countries wait an average of 9 months to obtain an MRI, under the socialized healthcare systems.

[hal ogen]

This is inspiring on many levels. Also, maybe there is hope for congressmen and senators yet.

[BykrBayb]

Productive citizens? As opposed to useless eaters?

[HiTech RedNeck]

It is a shame when sociological factors blind medicine to science that is right there for the taking.

[Psalm 73]

Fascinating article - now I can more fully grasp the horror that Terri Schiavo endured.
Bastards.

[BykrBayb]

Then the researchers used the technique to see if it might enable patients to answer simple yes-no questions, such as "do you have any brothers?" Patients were instructed to answer by imagining one of the two scenarios—playing tennis if the answer was yes, for example, or walking around one's home if no. One of the four vegetative patients responded correctly to the questions, said Adrian M. Owen, a neuroscientist at the Medical Research Council in the U.K. and one of the study's authors.

Most of the trolls I've seen on the pro-life threads aren't capable of this. They're certainly not capable of seeing the irony.

[pillut48]

Terri Schindler's murder may someday be avenged ping. :*(

Praying for those poor helpless souls who have been deemed "unworthy of living" in this world!

[massmike]

read later

[MizSterious]

I was so delighted to see this study. Many of us already knew this. Perhaps with this study, some lives can be saved—although it’s too late for many.

[brwnsuga]

Just imagine being stuck a body in which you are sensing everything but unable to communicate anything at all. What if Ms. Schiavo could hear conversations in which they were talking about letting her die? It would have been sheer torture.

[metmom]

Just because nothing is capable of getting out, doesn’t mean nothing is capable of getting in.

[ichabod1]

Duh. GOD! This makes me angry. I thought they knew everything. I thought they knew who was alive and who was a vegetable. I thought they could show you how their brain was gone. I thought we were just supposed to believe anything anybody with an MD behind their name told us and like it.

[floriduh voter]

In addition to the AP story, today's St. Pete Times had a sidebar about TERRI SCHIAVO, kind of intimating that she was like not able to follow commands. BB, do you have the balloon footage?????

If you want the sidebar, wag, let me know. The St. Pete Times is still killing poor Terri, five years after she was murdered.

[Dante3]

bttt

[BykrBayb]

I have the balloon footage, somewhere. I’ll have to look for it tonight.

[Dajjal]

Pro-Life bump