Validation of the simplified evaluation of consciousness disorders (SECONDs) scale in Mandarin

The pathogenesis of severe brain injury is complex, and in the past 50 years advances in medical technology have increased the number of people who have survived severe brain injury. After the acute stage of cerebral injury, some people fully recover from coma, while others develop a disorder of consciousness (DoC), such as unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS) or a minimally conscious state (MCS). People with UWS are awake, but unaware; without any reproducible sign of consciousness, they only exhibit reflex behaviors. People in a MCS are both awake and aware; they present reproducible and purposeful behaviors. MCS can be further divided, based on the presence of language-related behaviors: MCS+ and MCS-. People in a MCS+ do have language-related signs of consciousness: they can follow commands, make intelligible verbalizations and/or non-functional communication. Those in a MCS- only have language-unrelated signs of consciousness, such as visual pursuit, localization of noxious stimuli or contingent behavior like smiling or crying at appropriate stimuli. When people recover functional communication and/or use of objects, they are said to have emerged from the minimally conscious state (EMCS) .

Validation of the simplified evaluation of consciousness disorders (SECONDs) scale in Mandarin