
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 28, 1990                   TAG: 9003280523
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/7   EDITION: BEDFORD/FRANKLIN 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MADISON, WIS.                                LENGTH: Medium

TRANQUILIZER CURTAILS LONG VEGETATIVE STATE

A man who was in a vegetative state for eight years unexpectantly "woke up and started talking" after beingn given a tranquilizer for routine dental work, a neurologist said Tuesday.

"I have to tell you he was a different man. He knew his name, the name of his family, where he used to work. He could add, subtract and perform complicated calculations," Dr. Andres Kanner said in an interview.

The man, identified only as a Wisconsin man in his mid-40s, revived after being given Valium at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics on March 12, Kanner said.

The man, who was injured in a traffic accident 10 years ago, was not in a coma, but a vegetative state, meaning his eyes were open and he occasionally uttered words, but could do nothing else, the doctor said.

After the tranquilizer was administered for the March 12 dental work, the man fell asleep for about five minutes, Kanner said.> "Then he woke up and started talking. He was able to answer questions, say his name, to feed himself and walk," Kanner said he was told.

Hours later, the man lapsed back into the vegetative state. He was given a second dose that brought him out of it for about 90 minutes. At that point he was able to recall parts of his life.

The man, who remains hospitalized, has received different, longer-lasting forms of benzodiazepines, a family of drugs that includes Valium, and barbiturates that allowed him to remain lucid 10 to 12 hours at a time, Kanner said. The drugs are administered intravenously.

Kanner said the main problem doctors face now is trying to find a combination of drugs the man can take orally rather than intravenously that will prevent a relapse into the vegetative state.

The neurologist said that, as with most such patients, little was known about how to treat the man's condition and there was little hope for recovery before March 12.

He said the man's case must be viewed as isolated until doctors have more time to study why benzodiazepines and particularly barbiturates have the effect they do.

by CNB