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.)