Early detection of consciousness in critically ill patients with severe brain injuries can profoundly impact prognostication and clinical care decisions. Advanced multimodal protocols to detect signs of consciousness include standardized behavioral assessments, task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and task-based electroencephalography (EEG). However, these approaches have...
Major depressive disorder and treatment-resistant depression are significant worldwide health problems that need new therapies. The success of the anesthetic ketamine as an antidepressant is well known. It is less widely known that several other anesthetic agents have also shown antidepressant effects. These include nitrous oxide, propofol, isoflurane, sevoflurane, dexmedetomidine, and xenon....
Dexmedetomidine (DEX) is a well-tolerated sedative drug that induces a sleep-like state. DEX sedation offers a model to study transitions between different states of consciousness (indicated by, eg, behavior, the electroencephalogram (EEG), or transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) evoked EEG responses). However, the effects of repeated DEX exposure on recovery are poorly understood and will...