EEG Monitoring in the Emergency Department

Mass General Brigham

Status: Active, not recruiting

Conditions: Alcohol Abuse; Substance Abuse; Drug Overdose

Treatments: Other: Observational EEG Monitoring

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04070521

2018P002483

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study seeks to investigate whether drug effects in suspected overdose patients could be identified using the electroencephalogram (EEG). From previous work it is known that different classes of anesthetic drugs have specific "EEG signatures" related to the drug mechanisms. Many of the drugs of abuse that are frequently encountered in overdose patients are similar or identical to anesthetic drugs. The hypothesis for this study is that the EEG could be used to characterize the brain effects of intoxicants using EEG in the ED setting. Such monitoring could one day help clinicians and first responders at the point-of-care make more informed decisions to improve the care of overdose patients.

Enrollment: 10 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Adult patients aged 18 years and older who present to the ED with suspected use of a potential drug of abuse

Exclusion criteria

• Hemodynamic instability or other acute medical condition for which the primary treating team does not thing it would be appropriate or safe for the study staff to approach the patient
• The patient has an overt head trauma or deformity of the face which would preclude application of the forehead EEG monitoring lead
• The patient has dermatological issues or skin conditions on the forehead
• The patient has known dementia and/or mental impairment
• The patient is a prisoner
• The patient is an employee or student at one of the study sites.

Trial design

10 participants in 1 patient group

Observational EEG Monitoring

Treatment:

Other: Observational EEG Monitoring