Can We Scientifically and Reliably Measure the Level of Consciousness in Vegetative and Minimally Conscious States? Rasch Analysis of the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised

The CRS-R is a psychometrically sound and robust measurement tool. The linear measures of ability derived from the CRS-R total scores do satisfy all the principles of scientific measurement and are sufficiently reliable for high stakes assessments, such as the diagnosis of the level of consciousness in individual patients. Future studies are needed to directly explore the capabilities of the CRS-R measures to reduce the risk of vegetative state misdiagnosis.