Sleeping Pills to Wake the Comatose?

Ritalin slows down the hyperactive and speeds up the 'normal' -- a seemingly paradoxical effect. Along those lines, could a sleeping pill called Zolpidem help some people wake from comas?

“After about 20 minutes I heard Louis make a sound like ‘mmm’. I thought, am I dreaming? He didn’t make any sound usually. I looked at his eyes and they were sparkling. He turned his head to me and I said: ‘Louis, can you hear me?’ And then all of a sudden he said ‘yes’. I couldn’t believe it. I just cried. I said ‘say hello to me’ and then he said ‘hello, Mummy’ and started talking. I was so heartsore I couldn’t talk.”

After about two hours, Louis slipped back into a semi-conscious state. His mother gave him the drug for the following few nights and each time the reaction was the same. Convinced that Zolpidem was the cause, she told Dr Nel. He came to the rehabilitation centre and watched as Louis became fully conscious again about 20 minutes after taking the drug. It was the world’s first reported case of a Zolpidem-induced awakening. [...]

Since then, another South African and an American, both classified as being in a permanently vegetative state, have also been roused to full consciousness by the drug. There have also been reports that about 10 to 15 patients in a minimally conscious state have been awakened.

Back from the dead: A cure for comas [The Independent]