PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Mackenzie Graham
AU  - Charles Weijer
AU  - Andrew Peterson
AU  - Lorina Naci
AU  - Damian Cruse
AU  - Davinia Fernández-Espejo
AU  - Laura Gonzalez-Lara
AU  - Adrian M Owen
TI  - Acknowledging awareness: informing families of individual research results for patients in the vegetative state
AID  - 10.1136/medethics-2014-102078
DP  - 2015 Jul 01
TA  - Journal of Medical Ethics
PG  - 534--538
VI  - 41
IP  - 7
4099  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/41/7/534.short
4100  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/41/7/534.full
SO  - J Med Ethics2015 Jul 01; 41
AB  - Recent findings in cognitive neuroscience have revealed that some patients previously diagnosed as being in a vegetative state may retain some degree of covert awareness. However, it is unclear whether such findings should be disclosed to the families of these patients. Concerns about the preservation of scientific validity, reliability of results and potential harms associated with disclosure suggest that individual research results should be disclosed only under certain conditions. In the following paper, we offer four criteria for the disclosure of individual research results. Because the results of functional neuroimaging studies to detect covert awareness in vegetative patients are scientifically valid, informative and reasonably reliable and have considerable potential benefit for the patient, researchers have an obligation to disclose such results to family members. Further work is needed to develop educational materials for families and to systematically study the impact of disclosure on the families themselves.