Panorama responds to editorial on fMRI for vegetative and minimally conscious states

Turner-Stokes and colleagues' editorial suggests that the Panorama special, The Mind Reader: Unlocking My Voice, did not "clearly distinguish" between patients who live in a vegetative state and those in a minimally conscious state. 1 However, the script contained several explanations...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMJ (Online) 2013-01, Vol.346 (7890), p.25-25
Main Authors: Walsh, Fergus, Simmonds, Frank, Young, G Bryan, Owen, Adrian M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brain - pathology
Cognitive ability
Consciousness
Consciousness Disorders - diagnosis
Documentary films
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
Humans
Libel
Magnetic resonance imaging
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Panoramas
Patients
Persistent Vegetative State - diagnosis
Persistent vegetative states
RESPONSE
Scanners
Trials
Websites
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Turner-Stokes and colleagues' editorial suggests that the Panorama special, The Mind Reader: Unlocking My Voice, did not "clearly distinguish" between patients who live in a vegetative state and those in a minimally conscious state. 1 However, the script contained several explanations of these conditions; for example, when referring to one patient undergoing assessment: "Staff here will try to assess whether he is minimally conscious with fragments of understanding or vegetative-with no awareness at all." Yet the available peer reviewed evidence, including four of 23 (17%) vegetative patients in a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2010, 2 bears this out. None declared. 1 Turner-Stokes L, Kitzinger J, Gill-Thwaites H, Playford ED, Wade D, Allanson J, et al; on behalf of the Royal College of Physicians' Prolonged Disorders of Consciousness Guidelines Development Group. fMRI for vegetative and minimally conscious states.
ISSN:0959-8138
1756-1833
1756-1833
DOI:10.1136/bmj.e8702