ATLANTA,None — It's an awakening of sorts. The very popular sleep medication Ambien is having the opposite effect on patients with brain disorders, but no one knows why.
The Shepherd Center in Buckhead is teaming up with the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute in Philadelphia for a nationwide study to get answers.
The last 9 years of Amanda Drucker's life have been filed with pain. In late 2002, the Henry County woman's young son died of SIDS. A few months later, she overdosed.
"Two doctors pronounced her dead," said her father Doug Drucker. "She was brain dead when she got to the hospital, and the doctor pronounced her dead the next day. But she's our miracle."
Amanda survived, but suffered brain damage. Her father said her hand is drawn-up, her face is crooked and for most of the day she's simply uncomfortable. She has little control of her muscles and her legs move constantly. Amanda can't swallow, and until a few years ago, she couldn't speak. She typed on her father's computer that she felt trapped in her own body.
That all changed when doctors at the Shepherd Center recommended the drug Ambien to help her sleep.
"I was lying there quiet, and she got quiet and she just started talking," said Amanda's mom Wanda. "I mean, she started talking to me and carrying on a conversation.
A Channel 2 crew visited Amanda in the morning before she had her daily dose of Ambien. Her reaction and speech were slow, and it was a struggle for her mother to get the pill into her.
About 45 minutes later, Amanda suddenly started speaking and pointing to an actress on television. She had more control of her legs and could open up her hand. She also could swallow and eat and carry on quick conversations with her mom and dad.
"I get really excited when I see people improve with this kind of drug," Dr. Darryl Kaelin of the Shepherd Center said "When something works and you have no understanding of why it works, it just gets really exciting to figure it out."
Kaelin is the director of Shepherd's Brain Injury Program. He said he's seen Ambien work in 10 to 25 percent of his patients with cognitive disorders or some form of brain damage. That's why the Shepherd Center is one of the largest providers in the nationwide study and has sent about five of its patients to Philadelphia for the study.
"They'll have functioning MRI imaging to see how their brain functions, and some EEG monitoring to see how their brain wave activity is both on and off Ambien," he said.
Dr. John Whyte is the study director at the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute. He said of the 60 brain injury patients screened so far, only about 6 percent have responded to Ambien. He hopes to enroll several more patients. In the meantime, he and his colleagues are doing the brain scans and EEGs on 3 Ambien-responders and 1 non-responder. The hope is the results of those tests will eventually reveal why it works on some patients and not others.
Dr. Kaelin stressed the Ambien isn't a cure for a brain injury, but could improve brain function and more.
"I think when you can give somebody back their family member and they can see that glimpse of who they were before, and the hope that they can become that again. It's a real gift that we can give to them.
Drucker said the Ambien's effects on Amanda last for about two hours.
"As a parent, it just thrills my heart because for those two hours, she's alive again," he said.
WSBTV
