EEG Monitoring in the Emergency Department

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.