Life After Encephalitis

Encephalitis is a devastating condition whose impact upon people should not be underestimated. It robs people of abilities most of us take for granted, it leaves people without their loved ones, and even in those families where the person affected survives the person they once knew can be dramatically changed. Life After Encephalitis provides a unique insight into the experiences of those affected by encephalitis, sharing the rich, insightful, and often powerful, narratives of survivors and family members. It shows how listening to patient and family narratives can help us to understand how they make sense of what has happened to them, and also help professionals better understand and engage with them in practice. The book will also be useful for considering narratives associated with brain injuries from other causes, for example traumatic brain injury. Life After Encephalitis will appeal to a wide range of professionals working in rehabilitation settings, and also to and survivors of encephalitis, their families, and carers.

Encephalitis is a devastating condition whose impact upon people should not be underestimated. It robs people of abilities most of us take for granted, it leaves people without their loved ones, and even in those families where the person affected survives the person they once knew can be dramatically changed. Life After Encephalitis provides a unique insight into the experiences of those affected by encephalitis, sharing the rich, perceptive, and often powerful, narratives of survivors and family members. It shows how listening to patient and family narratives can help us to understand how they make sense of what has happened to them, and also help professionals better understand and engage with them in practice. The book will also be useful for considering narratives associated with brain injuries from other causes, for example traumatic brain injury. Life After Encephalitis will appeal to a wide range of professionals working in rehabilitation settings, and also to and survivors of encephalitis, their families, and carers.

'My first serious blackout marked the line between sanity and insanity. Though I would have moments of lucidity over the coming days and weeks, I would never again be the same person ...' Susannah Cahalan was a happy, clever, healthy twenty-four-year old. Then one day she woke up in hospital, with no memory of what had happened or how she had got there. Within weeks, she would be transformed into someone unrecognizable, descending into a state of acute psychosis, undergoing rages and convulsions, hallucinating that her father had murdered his wife; that she could control time with her mind. Everything she had taken for granted about her life, and who she was, was wiped out. Brain on Fire is Susannah's story of her terrifying descent into madness and the desperate hunt for a diagnosis, as, after dozens of tests and scans, baffled doctors concluded she should be confined in a psychiatric ward. It is also the story of how one brilliant man, Syria-born Dr Najar, finally proved - using a simple pen and paper - that Susannah's psychotic behaviour was caused by a rare autoimmune disease attacking her brain. His diagnosis of this little-known condition, thought to have been the real cause of devil-possessions through history, saved her life, and possibly the lives of many others. Cahalan takes readers inside this newly-discovered disease through the progress of her own harrowing journey, piecing it together using memories, journals, hospital videos and records. Written with passionate honesty and intelligence, Brain on Fire is a searingly personal yet universal book, which asks what happens when your identity is suddenly destroyed, and how you get it back. 'With eagle-eye precision and brutal honesty, Susannah Cahalan turns her journalistic gaze on herself as she bravely looks back on one of the most harrowing and unimaginable experiences one could ever face: the loss of mind, body and self. Brain on Fire is a mesmerizing story' -Mira Bartók, New York Times bestselling author of The Memory Palace Susannah Cahalan is a reporter on the New York Post, and the recipient of the 2010 Silurian Award of Excellence in Journalism for Feature Writing. Her writing has also appeared in the New York Times, and is frequently picked up by the Daily Mail, Gawker, Gothamist, AOL and Yahoo among other news aggregrator sites.

"And at that exact moment, the earth tipped, and we all slid into a parallel universe..." On Christmas Day 2016, the Jessops were just an ordinary family, but on Boxing Day, one near-death experience swept them all into the bewildering world of hospitals and serious illness, and their lives changed forever. Pulling Through is a handbook of everything Catherine has learned on their journey. It covers many practicalities, such as explaining hospital tests and scans, jargon-busting medical terms, finance, rehabilitation and more. But it also illuminates the emotional aspect of illness and how massively it affects family and friends. There are chapters on the power of nature, music, counselling, optimism and humour, and how to look after the mental health of both patient and carer. This is a book of hope, help and reassurance on every aspect of coping with life-changing illness in the family: the good, the bad, the funny, the sad, and the useful. If you, or someone you know, has a life-changing illness, then this book is here to help.

Useful information and real hope for patients and families whose lives have been altered by traumatic brain injury. A traumatic brain injury is a life-changing event, affecting an individual’s lifestyle, ability to work, relationships—even personality. Whatever caused it—car crash, work accident, sports injury, domestic violence, combat—a severe blow to the head results in acute and, often, lasting symptoms. People with brain injury benefit from understanding, patience, and assistance in recovering their bearings and functioning to their full abilities. In The Traumatized Brain, neuropsychiatrists Drs. Vani Rao and Sandeep Vaishnavi—experts in helping people heal after head trauma—explain how traumatic brain injury, whether mild, moderate, or severe, affects the brain. They advise readers on how emotional symptoms such as depression, anxiety, mania, and apathy can be treated; how behavioral symptoms such as psychosis, aggression, impulsivity, and sleep disturbances can be addressed; and how cognitive functions like attention, memory, executive functioning, and language can be improved. They also discuss headaches, seizures, vision problems, and other neurological symptoms of traumatic brain injury. By stressing that symptoms are real and are directly related to the trauma, Rao and Vaishnavi hope to restore dignity to people with traumatic brain injury and encourage them to ask for help. Each chapter incorporates case studies and suggestions for appropriate medications, counseling, and other treatments and ends with targeted tips for coping. The book also includes a useful glossary, a list of resources, and suggestions for further reading.

Encephalitis lethargica (‘sleeping sickness’) was a mysterious disorder that swept the world in the decade following the First World War, before disappearing without its cause having been identified. Around 85% of its victims, predominantly children, adolescents and younger adults, survived the acute disorder, but most developed severe neurological syndromes, particularly severe post-encephalitic parkinsonism and other severe motor abnormalities, that incapacitated them for the remainder of their lives. Despite its brief history, encephalitis lethargica played a major role in a variety medical discussions between the two World Wars, as this epitome of neuropsychiatric disease – attacking both motor and mental functions – appeared just as the separation of neurology and psychiatry had reached a critical point. Encephalitis lethargica sufferers presented an unprecedented combination of neurologic and psychiatric symptoms – including previously puzzling phenomena primarily associated with schizophrenia and hysteria, as well as behavioral changes and attention deficit disorders in children – that not only underscored the unity of mind and movement in the CNS, but also illuminated the critical role played by subcortical structures in consciousness and other higher mental functions that had formerly been associated with the soul and more recently presumed to be localized to the human cerebral cortex. Encephalitis lethargica exerted a greater influence on clinical and theoretic neuroscientific thought between the two World Wars than any other single disorder and had an enduring impact upon neurology and psychiatry. This book will be of interest to an educated audience active or interested in clinical (neurology, psychiatry, psychology) or laboratory neuroscience, particularly those interested in neuropsychiatry, as well as to those interested in the history of the biomedical sciences.

Awakenings — which inspired the major motion picture — is the remarkable story of a group of patients who contracted sleeping-sickness during the great epidemic just after World War I. Frozen for decades in a trance-like state, these men and women were given up as hopeless until 1969, when Dr. Oliver Sacks gave them the then-new drug L-DOPA, which had an astonishing, explosive, "awakening" effect. Dr. Sacks recounts the moving case histories of his patients, their lives, and the extraordinary transformations which went with their reintroduction to a changed world.

The seventh edition of the Canadian Immunization Guide was developed by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), with the support ofthe Immunization and Respiratory Infections Division, Public Health Agency of Canada, to provide updated information and recommendations on the use of vaccines in Canada. The Public Health Agency of Canada conducted a survey in 2004, which confi rmed that the Canadian Immunization Guide is a very useful and reliable resource of information on immunization.