Zolpidem has recently been very strongly related to certain instances of patients in a minimally conscious coma state being brought to a fully conscious state. While it was initially given to these supposed permanent coma patients to put them to sleep, it actually brought them to a fully conscious state in which they were capable of communicating and interacting for the first time in years. CAT scans have shown that the use of the drug actually does dramatically increase the activity in the frontal lobe of the brain in some patients in a minimally conscious state. Large-scale studies are currently being done to see whether it has the same universal effect on all or most patients in a minimally conscious state.^[24] It may be that zolpidem's ability to stimulate the brain, particularly in the semi-comatose, may be related to one of its side-effects, which sometimes causes sleepwalking and other activity while asleep, that appears to observers to be fully conscious activity.

 *Medicaid does cover Ambien! I called our pharmacy today. Im just waiting to hear from Marcels doctor.