Ambien Research Paper

1230 Words3 Pages

Cure?
Ambien, a drug used to help people go to sleep at night, has been linked to many unreal cases of unpredictably awakening individuals from their PVS. It is in point, believed that the sleeping aid, Ambien (also known as Zolpidem) achieves this by restarting cells in our brains that have been in a dormant state in the comatosed brain after injury (Clauss). According to Ralf Clauss, who spearheaded the PVS study at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford, UK the original detection that Zolpidem could actually benefit the many patients of severe brain trauma came about by accident; when the sleeping pill was administer to help a “restless” patient sleep. But in fact it did something greater.
Study & Results
In 2006, Clauss reported and continued by stating that he and colleagues discovered that the sleeping drug administered seemed to somehow help reinstate temporary partial consciousness to the patient treated. Furthermore in his report, he details their new study and the effect of Zolpidem on three patients (patient L, N, and G), all of who have been in a PVS state from about three to five years. According to Clauss, before treatment with sleeping aid, the …show more content…

In that 4 hour time span, however, the results were indeed miraculous, one specific patient following drug treatment was able to compute commands like lifting his hand or smiling or even counting to five, the Clauss researchers write, things he was unable to do previously. In addition the patients’ score on the Glasgow Coma Scale, a common rubric of responsiveness, improved temporarily, on average from 6 to 12 points for these patients (Clauss). So, why were these individuals affected by Ambien? How is it that it works on some patients, but not on others? Do we have

More about Ambien Research Paper

Open Document