Sleep in patients with vegetative state

What is it about?

Close relationships between the quality of neurophysiological sleep patterns and clinical symptoms are demonstrated in a number of neurological diseases. By definition the most important difference between vegetative state and coma is restored sleep-wake cycle in vegetative state. However very little effort was made in the direction to proper investigation of sleep in disorders of consciousness. As a results of this study we can conclude that vegetative state patients do have circadian changes in brain state, even if these changes frequently differ from those typical for normal sleep and sometimes difficult to classify.

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