His more recent work has been in neuorethics and disorders of consciousness following severe brain injury.

Medical conditions that inhibit consciousness are considered disorders of consciousness.

In a sense, the description of the diagnosis began the modern study of disorders of consciousness.

Patients may suffer from disorders of consciousness, or may need to be anesthetized for a surgical procedure.

MCS is a relatively new category of disorders of consciousness.

Some define disorders of consciousness as any change from complete self-awareness to inhibited or absent self-awareness.

In a three-year period spanning from 1994-1996, three position statements regarding the diagnostic criteria of disorder of consciousness were published.

Prior to the mid-1990s, there was a lack of operational definitions available to clinicians and researchers to guide the differential diagnosis among disorders of consciousness.

One of the most striking disorders of consciousness goes by the name anosognosia, a Greek-derived term meaning unawareness of disease.

A minimally conscious state (MCS) is a disorder of consciousness distinct from persistent vegetative state and locked-in syndrome.

A persistent vegetative state is a disorder of consciousness in which patients with severe brain damage are in a state of partial arousal rather than true awareness.

Brain death is a chronic disorder of consciousness characterized by lack of response to external stimuli, lack of observed activity and lack of observed behavior.

One of the more common diagnostic errors involving disorders of consciousness is mistaking MCS for VS which may lead to serious repercussions related to clinical management.

In the end, the Aspen Work-group provided a consensus statement regarding definitions and diagnostic criteria disorder of consciousness which include the vegetative state (VS) and the minimally conscious state (MCS).

Since 2008, Laureys is chair of the European Neurological Society Subcommittee on Coma and Disorders of Consciousness and since 2009 he is invited professor at the Royal Academy of Belgium.

Disorders of consciousness affect a significant number of people who suffer severe TBI; of those with severe TBI discharged from a hospital, 10-15 are in a vegetative state, and of this number only half regain consciousness within one to three years.