Stanford University School of Medicine
The Robert G. Fenley Writing Awards: General Staff Writing
Bronze
This is the story about a mother traumatized by the loss of her son and anesthesiologists who discovered they could help. Stanford Medicine anesthesiologist Harrison Chow, MD, had noticed that patients often had vivid, happy dreams as they gradually came out of anesthesia. For some patients, these dreams related to past trauma and helped them heal — almost like an accelerated form of exposure therapy. The story focuses on the experience of one patient.
Mare Lucas developed PTSD after her eldest son died by suicide. During a routine surgery, as Chow slowly tapered off the anesthesia, Lucas experienced joyful dreams about her son. These dreams were transformative. Her ever-present anxiety and PTSD dissipated, and she stopped having terrifying nightmares. Chow and his colleagues have observed similar cases and learned to precisely tune into a brain state, monitored by EEG, that facilitates these dreams. They published a report in The American Journal Psychiatry describing two cases, including Lucas’s, of anesthetic-induced dreaming that reduced trauma symptoms.
These cases suggest that anesthesia could have long-lasting therapeutic effects and highlights the power of experience, even in a dream state, to change people’s outlooks. The team plans to develop the procedure to treat psychiatric conditions.
What was the most impactful part of your entry?
The most impactful part of the story is the patient’s experience. The details of Lucas’s trauma, her dreams and her transformation draw in the reader and also demonstrate the true impact of this innovative treatment that may otherwise draw skepticism. Because the research into anesthesia-induced dreaming is in the early stages, there are no large-scale studies to highlight. Instead, the anesthesiologists and researchers are determined to pursue this work because of what they’ve witnessed in their patients. This story allows readers, and potential funding sources, to see what they see.
What challenge did you overcome?
The inspiration for this story, the case report in The American Journal of Psychiatry, is not the peer-reviewed research we usually cover. It’s based on observations of two patients, from which it’s difficult to draw solid scientific conclusions. Usually, we would have waited for the researchers to complete a larger study. In fact, the researchers were planning a much larger study, but they needed funding to make it happen. We were able to tell the story in a different way, opening with a patient’s perspective to help readers understand the profound potential of this work. Ultimately, this drew the attention and funding the researchers were hoping for. Science writer Nina Bai said she learned that our job as science communicators is not always about reporting groundbreaking findings, but sometimes about documenting the first steps and the people behind the scenes.
Contact:
Alison Peterson
medawards@stanford.edu