UWS is the contemporary term for the vegetative state.

• A. Vegetative State
• B. Coma
• C. Minimally Conscious State
• D. Locked-In Syndrome

Answer: (A)

This item tests terminology used to describe levels of consciousness after severe brain injury. UWS stands for Unresponsive Wakefulness Syndrome, the modern term for what has traditionally been called the vegetative state. In this condition the person has wakefulness—eye opening and sleep-wake cycles—but no evidence of awareness or purposeful interaction with the environment. That distinction is what sets it apart from coma, where there is no wakefulness at all. It also differs from a Minimally Conscious State, where there is minimal but definite evidence of awareness, or Locked-In Syndrome, where a person is fully conscious but cannot move or speak due to paralysis. Knowing that UWS means the vegetative state helps you recognize that the key feature is that wakefulness is preserved without conscious content.