Research Brief

Vanderbilt Health is conducting a study called INSPIRE (“Intubation with Sedation Only to Preserve Independently Respiratory Effort”), seeking to learn whether seriously ill patients being intubated should receive sedation alone or with the addition of a neuromuscular blocker.

The research will study patients being placed on mechanical ventilation in the Vanderbilt Health emergency department or an intensive care unit:

  • When doctors feel giving only a sedative medication would be best, the doctors will give only a sedative medication.
  • When doctors feel giving both a sedative and a neuromuscular blocker would be best, the doctors will give both medications.
  • When doctors do not have a preference, the patient participates in the INSPIRE study and is assigned to either receive only a sedative or receive both a sedative and a neuromuscular blocker.

More information about the study is available at the INSPIRE website or by contacting primary investigator Stephanie DeMasi, MD, at [email protected].

Source: Vanderbilt Health