MRRI research study to investigate how zolpidem might restore consciousness for patients in the vegetative state

Aug 31 2009

Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute (MRRI), the research arm of MossRehab, one of the world’s leading clinical rehabilitation centers, has launched an ambitious research study to investigate how the sleep drug zolpidem might restore consciousness for patients in the vegetative state. Led by John Whyte, MD, PhD, Director of MRRI, the new research study is the largest and most rigorously designed study to date that will examine zolpidem as a promising possibility for patients with disorders of consciousness.

After severe brain injury, some patients remain permanently unconscious, a condition know as the vegetative state, for which no proven treatment exists. However, there are encouraging results that demonstrate that the common sleep aid zolpidem (originally marketed as Ambien® but now available generically) can restore consciousness to patients who have been in this state for several years.

Dr. Whyte and his team initially conducted a small pilot study, based on reports of “miraculous” results among patients with prolonged unconsciousness. In the study of 15 individuals was a male patient in his 20’s, who had been rendered unconscious as a result of a car accident four years earlier. The patient could open and close his eyes and move his limbs, but he showed no real awareness of things around him and only stared vacantly. In the pilot study, Dr. Whyte and his team administered zolpidem to this patient, with excellent results: after a single dose of the drug, but not after an identical appearing placebo, the patient was able to respond to commands to move his leg, and was observed to follow other people’s movements with his eyes and even wave goodbye. (The other participants showed no such effects.)

Based on this success, the new MRRI study, which is federally funded, will be conducted over three years and seeks to enroll about 100 patients, from all over the country, who are in a vegetative or minimally conscious state due to brain injury. The study will examine not just how many people respond to the drug but why the drug has such a dramatic effect on some patients but not others and just how the drug is working. Dr. Whyte and his colleagues theorize that the drug may turn off brain cells that are preventing other parts of the brain from working.

“For medical research, this study enables us to look more closely at whether or not there is a part of the brain that has the ability to allow a person in a vegetative state to regain consciousness and start functioning again,” said Dr. Whyte. “For caregivers of patients whose vegetative states were deemed permanent, this research may offer hope and a way to reconnect with loved ones.”

The study is actively seeking participants; those interested in possibly enrolling a patient or obtaining more information should contact Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute at 215-663-6872 or [email protected].

http://www.mossrehab.com/