I wonder how does he feel when he's not under zolpidem. We can clearly see him being slow and mostly non-responsive, but I wonder what the experience for him is like - is it like sleep where he doesn't feel/remember anything about it (notice how once under zolpidem he does not think he has health problems), does he feel normal, and if so what is he thinking about, etc?
Totally agreed. I wonder what the ethical side of this is... Give someone a pill and they suddenly "unlocked" from locked-in syndrome. How can you not want to give these people these drugs all the time and let them have at least a partially normal existence.
The problem seems to be that their body builds tolerance to it so that even if you give them this medication constantly it gradually stops being effective. However I do agree that these drugs should be available and it's up to the carers to work out a dose that maximizes the amount of time the person is "unlocked".
