Induced coma

This just came to my mind. Has somebody tried this, for and year, for example. I was thinking it can reset your brain or something. I suspect there's no science behind this but who knows. Moreover, is there a hospital that would agree to do it by patient's desire or should it be doctor's decision?

 

What would it cost though, I don't imagine it would be included in any normal coverage ?

 

The Brexit shambles has had me thinking the same thing recently.

 

A very long time ago vets did it when nothing helped but only for a couple of weeks.

 

I seem to recall an article I read many years ago where Dr. Paul Cheney talked about the healing state of a coma, and how a couple of ME pts recovered (?) or had a dramatic improvement after a coma experience.

 

It would have to involve barbiturates or similar to keep you under or some kind of state of hypothermia. Then there is muscle wasting, malnutrition, bedsores, possible complications like pneumonia. I think 24 hour care in a hospital would be too costly especially when there isn’t any evidence that a coma resets the brain. I think that medically induced coma’s are a last resort measure for things like traumatic brain injury or something, so I doubt any doctor would agree to do it.

 

I read an article years ago about this being offered abroad, I think it was somewhere in Asia, during private treatment for drug addiction or alcoholism. As far as I remember, it usually lasted for 10 days - 2 weeks although it may have been for up to a month. The idea, apparently, is to help people get over the worst cravings and withdrawal symptoms, and I vaguely remember it was claimed it might reduce the risk of withdrawal seizures too.

I wouldn't be surprised to hear of people dying during this treatment. It sounds frightening to me - being somewhere I wasn't familiar with, being completely at the mercy of staff who might do anything to me. I wonder how many women came round from their comas and discovered they were pregnant?

 

Yeah, I'm totally ready to take all the other risks, but since insurance doesn't cover this, I'm afraid I can't afford to pay for it.

 

My mother was in a induced coma (shes fine now btw), and after seeing all the human resources that took at the hospital, I can`t imagine this being economically viable for 99 perc outside of studies (which would be hard get ethical approval for probably)

 

Me and my mum know someone abroad who is currently in an induced coma for the total length of a year (the person has been in it for numerous months now, don’t want to put any further details so as not to possibly highlight the person or hospital). It makes perfect sense to us that this would massively help with ME symptoms as your body is at complete rest. The person is very hopeful this will massively help and we have our fingers crossed for them

Note - I think it’s a year. It may be a shorter length of time but they gave the impression of a year and they have been in it numerous months already as mentioned above

 

It used to be standard treatment for something years ago - maybe pre-WW1? Can't remember what. My brain went walkabout, it might come back to me 3am-ish Sorry this isn't much help! Other than to say it has been done before for something.

 

I can't see any responsible doctor, or hospital, agreeing to this. The cost alone would be staggering as you would require 24 hour care seven days per week.

 

Its a shame about the cost, it seems like a great way of forcing complete rest, something a lot of us struggle to do even on a basic level.

It sounds like absolute bliss.

 

It amazes me that people accept that having someone in a coma, with automated monitoring and automated feeding, costs significantly more than nothing.

But then it amazes me that it apparently costs hundred of pounds a week for someone's granny to watch soap operas or that keeping 3 people locked in 8 by 10 cell 23 hours a day can cost over £2,000 a week.

Someones' making a lot of money somewhere.

 

Aggressive sleep therapy, using drug induced sleep, has been tried for ME. I think it was at Charing Cross Hospital in the UK, some decades ago. This might or might not have been intense enough to qualify as a coma, where the brain becomes completely unresponsive to external stimuli.

 

We do not yet have unambiguous evidence that rest is therapeutic in ME? We can not say whether rest promotes spontaneous recovery, or just avoids the negative consequences of overexertion.

We can not yet quantify what over exertion is.

Surely we should be attempting to understanding the role of activity limitation, exertion limitation and of active rest in ME before attempting anything as risky or as expensive as an induced coma.

 

I'm pretty sure I remember it being a treatment in the 1960's. There was a clinic in North London that did sleep therapy.

A journalist. who flew to NY every week, was treated there for exhaustion. I guess it must have worked as he went back a for more treatments and kept working.

I had a friend who was treated for depression, he said that he was woken for meals. The treatment didn't work for him.

 

The body isn’t at complete rest in a coma, there is a lot going on related to adverse effects and the body coping with coma. Respiratory drive is often lost which means a patient would need mechanical ventilation.

Gut motility is very much reduced which can cause issues.

Hypotension usually means the patient will need drugs to maintain cerebral perfusion pressure.

Hypokalemia or low potassium often results which can cause a whole cascade of events — heart issues etc.

The heart can be adversely affected to the point of heart failure.

Bed sores of course.

A patient would need a catheter which increases the risk of bladder and kidney infection.

The brain may be asleep but the body is fighting to maintain homeostasis. And there is also the risks of having a high level of barbiturates in your system constantly. This is why most medically induced coma’s last a few weeks. Six months is rare and one year is unheard of.

I have read reports of people in medically induced comas saying their brain is still registering the surroundings at times and they experience the coma as one long never ending dream.

The only automated monitoring is vital signs, brain waves and intercranial pressure. A person in a medically induced coma is usually kept in an intensive care unit and requires a lot of one to one care. A comatose patient requires constant turning about every three hours, catheter bags have to emptied, bloodwork is required very often, nutrition provided usually through a feeding tube, diapers changed, bed baths ... . Care for a coma patient runs about 2,000 to 4,000 dollars per day if in an ICU.

 

Yeah, in the intensive care unit mom was in there was always one nurse assigned to her doing these things. You cant just leave people in an induced coma and take a stroll

 

Exactly! Both of my sisters had their lives end while in a coma, and they both required around the clock nursing care in the ICU. Sometimes it took two nurses to provide the kind of care they needed. Anyone who thinks that being in a coma requires little care have no idea what they are talking about.