February 23, 2011

expert reaction to study published in BMJ Open suggesting most people with ‘locked-in’ syndrome are happy

A survey of patients with ‘locked-in’ syndrome – in which the patient is conscious but cannot move any part of their body – purported to show that most such patients are happy.

Dr Adrian Owen, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience and Imaging, Centre for Brain and Mind, The University of Western Ontario, said:

“This is an extremely important study with a clear message – we cannot, and should not, presume to know what it must be like to be in one of these conditions. I think most of us feel that life in a lifeless body would not be a life worth living, but this study demonstrates that this is not always the case. Many patients can find happiness in ways that we simply cannot imagine. The study has clear implications for patients who are locked in, but also for other patients in equally challenging conditions. For example, we have seen several cases recently of patients presumed to be in a vegetative state, who after closer examination with sophisticated new brain scanning techniques, turn out to be in a situation that is much more like the locked in patients in this study. On the basis of the results, it would be unwise for us to make assumptions about the mental state of those individuals.”

A survey on self-assessed well-being in a cohort of chronic locked-in syndrome patients: happy majority, miserable minority, by Marie-Aurelie Bruno et al., published in BMJ Open, Wednesday 23 February 2011.