Reports About Paradoxical Lucidity from Health Care Professionals: A Pilot Study.
Jeanne A Teresi, Mildred Ramirez, Julie Ellis and 8 others
PMID 36594915WHAT IT FOUND
Staff caregivers reported 28 patients with 29 unexpected lucidity episodes.
The person spoke in all episodes, and 78.6% had unexpected activity such as singing or playing an instrument. This pilot found staff could describe events, not that any intervention works.
Key findings
01Staff informants reported 28 unique patients and 29 lucidity events, with 24 respondents reporting at least one event.
02In almost half of the reported events (48.3%), the person returned to full lucidity, and the person spoke in all events.
03Staff reported that unclear speech, not conveying needs, and saying nothing or only moaning were present before events in 55.2%, 51.7%, and 17.2% of cases, but were reported as absent during events.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Small convenience sample of 33 staff informants, recruited by the project coordinator, so the reports may not represent other staff or settings. The pilot used only descriptive means, standard deviations, and percentages because the sample was small. Events were reported from memory, and some were recalled from more than 12 months before the interview, so details may be inaccurate. Not all reports were adjudicated as cases, so some reported events may not meet a research definition of paradoxical lucidity. The study relied on staff reports about patients, not direct patient or family reports, and it did not test whether any intervention caused the events.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these reports as evidence that an intervention caused sudden lucidity. The study asked staff to describe remembered events and did not test any intervention, and not all reports were adjudicated as cases.