Other causes: Drugs that can produce steatorrhea include orlistat, a slimming pill, or as adverse effect of octreotide or lanreotide, used to treat acromegaly or other neuroendocrine tumors. It can be found in Graves disease / hyperthyroidism. Medications
Orlistat (also known by trade names Xenical and Alli) is a diet pill that works by blocking the enzymes that digest fat. As a result, some fat cannot be absorbed from the gut and is excreted in the feces instead of being metabolically digested and absorbed, sometimes causing oily anal leakage. Vytorin (ezetimibe/simvastatin) tablets can cause steatorrhea in some people. Excess whole nuts in diet
Some studies have shown that stool lipids are increased when whole nuts are eaten, compared to nut butters, oils or flour and that lipids from whole nuts are significantly less well absorbed. Natural fats
Consuming jojoba oil has been documented to cause steatorrhea and anal leakage because it is indigestible.Consuming escolar and oilfish (sometimes mislabelled as butterfish) will often cause steatorrhea, also referred to as Gempylotoxism or Gempylid Fish Poisoning or keriorrhea. Artificial fats
The fat substitute Olestra, used to reduce digestible fat in some foods, was reported to cause leakage in some consumers during the test-marketing phase. As a result, the product was reformulated before general release to a hydrogenated form that is not liquid at physiologic temperature. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warning indicated excessive consumption of Olestra could result in "loose stools"; however, this warning has not been required since 2003. Diagnosis
Steatorrhea should be suspected when the stools are bulky, floating and foul-smelling.
Conversely, there is also fear that people may associate attitudes with higher-functioning people in minimally conscious state with people in persistent vegetative state, thus minimizing the value of their lives. Regulating therapeutic nihilism
Currently, risk aversion dominates the ethical landscape when research involves those with impaired decision-making abilities. Fears of therapeutic adventurism has led to a disproportionate view about the under-appreciation of potential benefits and an overstatement of risks. Thus, recognizing this distortion is important in order to calculate the right balance between protecting vulnerable populations that cannot provide autonomous consent and potentially restorative clinical trials. Notable examples
Jackie Wilson (June 9, 1934 – January 21, 1984) American soul and rock and roll singer who fell into a coma after collapsing on stage, woke up but quickly fell back into a coma for the rest of his life. Jan Grzebski (1942–2008), a Polish railroad worker who fell into a minimally conscious state in 1988 and woke up in 2007. Terry Wallis (1964-2022). This American man was in a coma for nearly a year after a truck accident, then a minimally conscious state for 19 years. Martin Pistorius (born 1975). Because of a mystery illness, the South African spent three years in a vegetative state, four years in a minimally conscious state, and five years unable to move anything other than his eyes (locked-in syndrome). In 1999, he fully awakened, and has since recovered to the point that he was able to become a web designer, developer, and author.