Reports have appeared in British newspapers of a sleeping pill causing coma victims to awake. It has been suggested by doctors that it wakens dormant cells in the motor section of the brain. The effect lasts about4 days.
Juan on braintalk 1 has said that a drug albien aids gait. I looked up the structure of ambien, and found it is the same chemical as zolpidem.
Maybe this is a drug to give us a 4 day "on"??
Ron

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/tex...n_page_id=1770

Brain-damaged patients wake following sleeping pill treatment
By NICK McDERMOTT

A group of severely brain-damaged patients given little chance of recovery by medical experts are awakening after receiving a radical new course of medication - in the form of a sleeping pill.

Instead of sending them into a deeper slumber, coma patients being treated with Zolpidem - a generic sleeping pill - are reporting remarkable improvements in both speech and movement, with many communicating with their loved ones for the first time in years.

Louis Viljoen, who was in a persistent vegetative state after being hit by a lorry while out riding his bike, was first given the sleeping to control involuntary spasms.

To the amazement of staff at the Ikaya Tinivorster rehabilitation centre in Springs, near Johannesburg, South Africa, Louis began to speak for the first time in five years.

Family GP Wally Nel, who prescribed the sleeping pill to Louis, told The Guardian that the accidental discovery was a "remarkable" breakthrough.

"Something strange and wonderful is happening here, and we have to get to the bottom of it," he said.

"Since Louis, I have treated more than 150 brain-damaged patients with zolpidem and have seen improvements in about 60 per cent of them."

Dr Ralf Clauss, a physician of nuclear medicine, carried out brain scans on Louis before and after taking the drug, and describes the results as "unbelievable".

"We did scans before and after we gave Louis zolpidem. Areas that appeared black and dead beforehand began to light up with activity afterwards," he said.

"I was dumbfounded, and I still am."

Medical trials are now expected to begin in South Africa aiming at understanding how the drug is waking brain cells once thought dead.

Keen sportsman Riaan Bolton, 23, suffered severe brain trauma after a serious car crash in July 2003, and specialists warned the family he had only a 5 per cent chance of recovery.

Until June, Riaan remained in a vegetative state, but after his parents Johanna and Tinus gave him the pill they noticed immediate improvements.

"We gave him the pill and we noticed him moving his fingers in his left hand and touching them against each other.

"His eyes went big and he began looking from left to right," said Tinus.

Since taking the drug, Riaan has begun responding to questioning and can drink through a straw, "It has given us hope," says Johanna, "to have communication with him again, to know he becomes aware of us and to tell him we love him."



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