Wessex Head Injury Matrix in Patients with Prolonged Disorders of Consciousness: A Reliability Study.

The Wessex Head Injury Matrix (WHIM) was developed to assess patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC) and was tested in terms of inter-rater reliability (IRR) and test-retest reliability (TRR) in the year 2000. The American Congress of Rehabilitation and Medicine reported that IRR and TRR were unproven. We aim to assess the reliability of the WHIM in prolonged DOC patients (PDOC).

Central autonomic network and early prognosis in patients with disorders of consciousness.

The central autonomic network (CAN) plays a crucial role in modulating the autonomic nervous system. Heart rate variability (HRV) is a valuable marker for assessing CAN function in disorders of consciousness (DOC) patients. We used HRV analysis for early prognosis in 58 DOC patients enrolled within ten days of hospitalization.

Assessing Consciousness through Neurofeedback and Neuromodulation: Possibilities and Challenges.

Neurofeedback is a non-invasive therapeutic approach that has gained traction in recent years, showing promising results for various neurological and psychiatric conditions. It involves real-time monitoring of brain activity, allowing individuals to gain control over their own brainwaves and improve cognitive performance or alleviate symptoms. The use of electroencephalography (EEG), such as brain-computer interface (BCI), transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), has been instrumental in developing neurofeedback techniques.

I Feel! Therefore, I Am from Pain to Consciousness in DOC Patients.

Pain assessment and management in patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC) is a challenging and important aspect of care, with implications for detecting consciousness and promoting recovery. This narrative review explores the role of pain in consciousness, the challenges of pain assessment, pharmacological treatment in DOC, and the implications of pain assessment when detecting changes in consciousness. The review discusses the Nociception Coma Scale and its revised version, which are behavioral scales used to assess pain in DOC patients, and the challenges and controversies surrounding the appropriate pharmacological treatment of pain in these patients.