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Clinical Contributions to Consciousness Studies

George A. Mashour, Ashley Turner

Activitas Nervosa Superior March 1, 2010 DOI: 10.1007/bf03379563 (opens in new tab)

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Systematic review Peer reviewed
Population Articles from Consciousness and Cognition, Journal of Consciousness Studies, and Anthropology of Consciousness
Topics Philosophy of mind
Key findings Clinical articles constituted about 8% of the literature in three consciousness studies journals, with psychiatry most represented and neurosurgery least. The authors propose that clinical perspectives are underrepresented in the field.

Abstract

Abstract Consciousness is a multidisciplinary subject of inquiry. The extent of clinical contributions to the field of consciousness studies has yet to be investigated. The goal of this study was to assess the degree of clinically related articles in the literature of consciousness studies through a systematic evaluation. Three journals systematically identified (Consciousness and Cognition, Journal of Consciousness Studies, and Anthropology of Consciousness) were reviewed from the first issue through December 2008. All original articles related to anesthesiology, general clinical medicine, neurology, neuro-surgery, and psychiatry were identified. Of the 1,805 articles reviewed for the three journals, a total of 149 clinically relevant articles were identified; this represented an average contribution of 8% to the total articles. Psychiatry was the discipline most consistently represented in the three journals; neurosurgery was the least represented. There is a relative paucity of clinical articles in the literature of consciousness studies. Clinical perspectives may thus be underrepresented in the field.