Neuroscience
The unrealistic portrayal of coma in films could be misleading the general public at a time when society has been so bitterly divided by the ethical issues raised by high-profile cases like that of Terri Schiavo. She died last year after her feeding tube was removed, following 15 years living in a persistent vegetative state.
Eelco and Coen Wijdicks at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine analysed the portrayal of coma in thirty popular films, including Kill Bill and Regarding Henry. In all the films bar one, coma patients were seen to remain well-groomed with a normal, muscular tanned appearance. In 18 of the films, the coma patient awoke, usually in a sudden fashion and without any noticeable cognitive deficits.
The authors said that not showing the muscle atrophy, bed sores, incontinence and feeding tubes associated with coma “may be a conscious decision to maximise entertainment but is a disservice to the viewer”.
"To imply full physical and cognitive recovery after prolonged coma is gratuitous", they added.
Indeed, a survey of 72 lay viewers who were shown 22 scenes taken from the analysed films revealed more than a third would use the fictional scenes to inform decisions that could potentially face them in real life.
“We are concerned that the comatose states depicted in these movies often can be misinterpreted as realistic representations” the authors concluded. However, they pointed to one film ‘Dream Life of Angels’ “…that was truly able to convey the complexities of care surrounding a loved one in a coma”.
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Wijdicks, E.F.M. & Wijdicks, C.A. (2006). The portrayal of coma in contemporary motion pictures. Neurology, 66, 1300-1303.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
Link to Hollywood coverage of mental disorders, from The Psychologist magazine.
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Neuroscience
The misrepresentation of coma in films
The unrealistic portrayal of coma in films could be misleading the general public at a time when society has been so bitterly divided by the ethical issues raised by high-profile cases like that of Terri Schiavo. She died last year after her feeding tube was removed, following 15 years living in a persistent vegetative state.Eelco and Coen Wijdicks at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine analysed the portrayal of coma in thirty popular films, including Kill Bill and Regarding Henry. In all the films bar one, coma patients were seen to remain well-groomed with a normal, muscular tanned appearance. In 18 of the films, the coma patient awoke, usually in a sudden fashion and without any noticeable cognitive deficits.
The authors said that not showing the muscle atrophy, bed sores, incontinence and feeding tubes associated with coma “may be a conscious decision to maximise entertainment but is a disservice to the viewer”.
"To imply full physical and cognitive recovery after prolonged coma is gratuitous", they added.
Indeed, a survey of 72 lay viewers who were shown 22 scenes taken from the analysed films revealed more than a third would use the fictional scenes to inform decisions that could potentially face them in real life.
“We are concerned that the comatose states depicted in these movies often can be misinterpreted as realistic representations” the authors concluded. However, they pointed to one film ‘Dream Life of Angels’ “…that was truly able to convey the complexities of care surrounding a loved one in a coma”.
_________________________________
Wijdicks, E.F.M. & Wijdicks, C.A. (2006). The portrayal of coma in contemporary motion pictures. Neurology, 66, 1300-1303.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
Link to Hollywood coverage of mental disorders, from The Psychologist magazine.
- Elsewhere
For when you've had enough of journal articles: "Schizophrenia may not cause one's death, but it does take one's life". Alexander Linklater on coma-induced paradise, split personalities and the case of the woman who kept falling over. Fathers...
- Finding Consciousness Within
It’s difficult to imagine anything worse than lying paralysed, being fully aware and yet unable to signal to your loved ones sitting around you that – yes, you can hear them, you are there. If only the doctors could scan your brain and see that you...
- The Traumatically Brain Injured One
The Brave One (2007) - Jodie Foster In The Brave One, Jodie Foster plays a public radio talk show host who becomes the victim of a shocking, violent, and brutal crime that leaves her in a coma for three weeks. From a clinical standpoint, she clearly...
- Glasgow Coma Scale, 40 Years On
Dr. Graham Teasdale speaks with The Lancet about his Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) forty years after he and his colleagues introduced it. Available here at: Lancet podcast. ...
- Narrative: Post-traumatic-brain-injury Recovery
This narrative by a writer for The Miami Herald includes a good description of the resolution of her post-traumatic amnesia (PTA) (also called post-traumatic confusional state) in the recovery from the head injury she sustained. Recovering life, self...