What in the world is consciousness?

Zeman, Adam

doi:10.1016/s0079-6123(05)50001-3

Cited by 59 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Data were collected via a questionnaire (Online Supplementary Table I) which was designed following the rationale of previous surveys on attitudes as conducted by Jennett [21] and Zeman [22]. The questionnaire was distributed during presentations at medical and scientific conferences and meetings (n To ensure comparability of responses, participants were first introduced to the clinical definition of LIS and of disorders of consciousness and were then asked to provide yes/no responses to 16 questions related to these conditions.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A European survey on attitudes towards pain and end-of-life issues in locked-in syndrome

Demertzi

Jox²,

Racine

et al. 2014

Brain Injury

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Objectives: Patients with locked-in syndrome often self-report a higher quality of life than generally expected. This study reports third-person attitudes towards several salient issues on locked-in syndrome. Methods: Close-ended survey among conference attendees from 33 European countries. Analysis included chi-square tests and logistic regressions. Results: From the 3332 respondents (33% physicians, 18% other clinicians, 49% other professions; 47% religious), 90% agreed that patients with locked-in syndrome can feel pain. The majority (75%) disagreed with treatment withdrawal, but 56% did not wish to be kept alive if they imagined themselves in this condition (p50.001). Religious and southern Europeans opposed to treatment withdrawal more often than non-religious (p50.001) and participants from the North (p ¼ 0.001). When the locked-in syndrome was compared to disorders of consciousness, more respondents endorsed that being in a chronic locked-in syndrome was worse than being in a vegetative state or minimally conscious state for patients (59%) than they thought for families (40%, p50.001). Conclusions: Personal characteristics mediate opinions about locked-in syndrome. The dissociation between personal preferences and general opinions underlie the difference in perspective in disability. Ethical responses to dilemmas involving patients with locked-in syndrome should consider the diverging ethical attitudes of stakeholders.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A European survey on attitudes towards pain and end-of-life issues in locked-in syndrome

Demertzi

Jox²,

Racine

et al. 2014

Brain Injury

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“…Consciousness is operationally difficult to define [69]. Although there is much research on the QoL of people with epilepsy, few researchers have looked specifically at the effect on QoL of sudden, unanticipated alterations of consciousness.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Alterations in Consciousness on Quality of Life (QoL) in Epilepsy: Searching for Evidence

Charidimou

Selai

2011

Behavioural Neurology

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Abstract. The impact of epilepsy on Quality of Life (QoL) is well-documented. The ability of epileptic seizures to alter the conscious states of patients is also well established. Although there is much research on the QoL of people with epilepsy, few researchers have looked specifically at the effect of sudden, unanticipated alterations of consciousness on QoL. This lack of systematic studies of consciousness alterations and QoL in epilepsy limits our ability to shed light on this interrelation. In this article, with these limitations in mind, we focus on studies of newer AEDs. We review the evidence as to whether a significant reduction (typically more than 50%) in seizures that induce alterations of consciousness, as a result of switching to one of the newer AEDs, leads to improvements in QoL. We draw on this literature to speculate on the relationship between ictal consciousness alterations and poor QoL in epilepsy, to identify contributory and confounding factors and to highlight implications for future research. We suggest that an understanding of how factors associated with consciousness impairment affect QoL could help the treatment and management of these patients.

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“…We start with the intuitively appealing ideas that consciousness functions to initiate voluntary behavior and/or to mediate rational actions, before turning to more recent candidates, for example that consciousness functions to integrate information or to mediate planning and flexible behavior in response to novelty. Finally, we consider the possibility that consciousness, as a constellation concept (Block 1995;Block 2005;Zeman 2005) may have multiple functions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functions of Consciousness

Seth

2009

Encyclopedia of Consciousness

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What in the world is consciousness?

Cited by 59 publications

References 22 publications

A European survey on attitudes towards pain and end-of-life issues in locked-in syndrome

A European survey on attitudes towards pain and end-of-life issues in locked-in syndrome

The Effect of Alterations in Consciousness on Quality of Life (QoL) in Epilepsy: Searching for Evidence

Functions of Consciousness

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