Stupor is an altered state of consciousness where the sufferer is unresponsive except to intense physical stimulation. It is caused by brain damage or physical ailments such as kidney or liver failure. Mental illness can also cause stupor, with two types identified by psychiatrists and psychologists. Symptoms include abnormal breathing, muscle stiffness, and unusual eye movements.
A stupor is an altered level of consciousness in which the sufferer is almost totally numb and typically only reacts to intense physical stimulation. People in a stupor often appear to be in a dream state and usually wake up only when they are shaken vigorously, hear extremely loud sounds, or experience severe physical pain. Quite similar to a stupor is a coma. The difference between the two conditions is that people in a coma will not respond to any external stimulation, however intense.
The cause of stupor is usually some kind of brain damage. Large parts of both the left and right sides of the brain are involved in maintaining full consciousness, as are smaller, isolated areas. Typically a physical disorder or one caused by drugs, alcohol, or prescription drugs interferes with the proper functioning of both sides of the brain or in a specific area that controls consciousness. Common physical ailments that can lead to stupor are kidney or liver failure, underactivity of the thyroid gland, extremely high or low body temperature, high or low blood sugar or oxygen levels, heart conditions, and aging.
Mental illness is sometimes characterized by stupor. Psychiatrists and psychologists typically identify two types of stupor that occur in patients with mental illness: benign and malignant. They define these terms differently than when they are used to describe cancers. Benign stupors in mental patients are those that can be expected to occur and end quickly. Malignant rapes are typically those that doctors do not expect to end abruptly and expect to last for considerable periods of time.
Stupor symptoms vary in number and severity with the people who suffer from it. Close observation, however, can sometimes detect them. Medical professionals typically attempt to diagnose stupor by studying a patient’s breathing, muscle stiffness, and eyes.
A person in a stupor usually does not breathe normally. He may be breathing too fast, too slow, too deeply, or irregularly. Sometimes breathing abruptly switches from one condition to another. The muscles of stupor sufferers often twitch and lock themselves in strange positions. Some sufferers experience muscle spasms. In others, their musculature, even their entire body, becomes very limp.
The appearance and movement of the eyes also sometimes offer clues to the presence of awe. The pupils of the sufferers’ eyes are often greatly dilated and do not react to light. In others, the pupils contract and become very small. The eyes of people in a stupor may not move at all; or, if they do, they can move very unnaturally.
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