ORIGINAL COMMUNICATION Attitudes towards end-of-life issues in disorders of consciousness: a European survey

Abstract Previous European surveys showed the support of healthcare professionals for treatment withdrawal [i.e., artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) in chronic vege-tative state (VS) patients]. The recent definition of mini-mally conscious state (MCS), and possibly research advances (e.g., functional neuroimaging), may have lead to uncertainty regarding potential residual perception and may have influenced opinions of healthcare professionals. The aim of the study was to update the end-of-life attitudes towards VS and to determine the end-of-life attitudes towards MCS. A 16-item questionnaire related to con-sciousness, pain and end-of-life issues in chronic (i.e., [1 year) VS and MCS and locked-in syndrome was dis-tributed among attendants of medical and scientific con-ferences around Europe (n = 59). During a lecture, th