13 September 2006

Medical news

There is another story in the Guardian this week about a South African general practitioner's apparent success in treating patients diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). The doctor noted in this story initially treated a patient with a common sedative, zolpidem, quite by accident, in an attempt to alleviate other symptoms.

Results are still preliminary as a formal study has only just begun but there do appear to be positive developments. Scans have indicated that areas of the brain that showed no activity prior to the medication now show considerable activity, as though they had been rejuvenated. It should be noted that the subjects which seem to have had the greatest benefit (return of speech and movement) have, in general, those with the least significant damage.

I certainly hope that formal studies validate the results so far and that they will indicate the type of damage that can potentially be addressed.

Let us hope that this does not turn out to be a chimera and that the improvements do not vanish as they did in Dr. Sach's treatment of postencephalitic patients with L-dopa.

The unfortunate aspect of these developments is that there will be those, generally on the christian right, who will seize on this as proof that it is never appropriate to allow an untreatable patient's suffering to end. If that should come to pass it will most certainly be an unwelcome side effect to what seems to offer, admittedly at a very early stage, much promise.

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