The Case Of The Frozen Addicts

In the summer of 1982, hospital emergency rooms in the San Francisco Bay Area were suddenly confronted with mysteriously “frozen” patients – young men and women who, though conscious, could neither move nor speak. Doctors were baffled, until neurologist J. William Langston, recognizing the symptoms of advanced Parkinson’s disease, administered L-dopa – the only known effective treatment – and “unfroze” his patient. Dr. Langston determined that this patient and five others had all used the same tainted batch of synthetic heroin, inadvertently laced with a toxin that had destroyed an area of their brains essential to normal movement. This same area, the substantia nigra, slowly deteriorates in Parkinson’s disease. As scientists raced to capitalize on this breakthrough, Dr. Langston struggled to salvage the lives of his frozen patients, for whom L-dopa provided only short-term relief. The solution he found lay in the most daring area of research: fetal-tissue transplants. The astonishing recovery of two of his patients garnered worldwide press coverage, helped overturn federal restrictions on fetal-tissue research, and offered hope to millions suffering from Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and other degenerative brain disorders. This is the story behind the headline – a spellbinding account that brings to life the intellectual excitement, ethical dilemmas, and fierce competitiveness of medical research. This new updated edition of the classic neurological mystery tale, “The Case of the Frozen Addicts,” illuminates how the solution to a baffling mystery of the brain’s chemistry opened a new frontier in medicine and restored life to people without hope. “It begins with a series of quixotic discoveries, escalates to providing possible solutions for one of humanity’s most intractable medical problems, and then catapults the reader into the center of America’s hottest political arena – abortion and fetal sanctity. Bravo! A brilliant read.” – Laurie Garrett, author of The Coming Plague “[Langston and Palfreman] weave a highly readable and spellbinding medical detective tale... It is as absorbing as a good mystery, as entertaining as an exciting novel, and as enlightening as a good biography.” – Stanley Fahn, New England Journal of Medicine “I could not put it down... it is the lives of the ‘frozen addicts’ themselves – and the fullness with which this is presented – which makes the whole thing overwhelming.” – Oliver Sacks

In this riveting book, neurosurgeon J. William Langston and writer Jon Palfreman recount the bizarre and far-reaching mystery of six patients who arrived at San Francisco area emergency rooms after using a synthetic analogue of heroin. Fully conscious but unable to move or speak, they were soon diagnosed by Langston as having advanced Parkinson's disease. This spellbinding book offers a stunning report on these baffling cases. of photos. "From the Trade Paperback edition."

A Top 10 Science Book of Fall 2015 - Publishers Weekly A star science journalist with Parkinson's reveals the inner workings of this perplexing disease Seven million people worldwide suffer from Parkinson's, and doctors, researchers, and patients continue to hunt for a cure. In Brain Storms, the award-winning journalist Jon Palfreman tells their story, a story that became his own when he was diagnosed with the debilitating illness. Palfreman chronicles how scientists have worked to crack the mystery of what was once called the shaking palsy, from the earliest clinical descriptions of tremors, gait freezing, and micrographia to the cutting edge of neuroscience, and charts the victories and setbacks of a massive international effort to best the disease. He takes us back to the late 1950s and the discovery of L-dopa. He delves into a number of other therapeutic approaches to this perplexing condition, from partial lobotomies and deep brain stimulation to neural grafting. And he shares inspiring stories of brave individuals living with Parkinson's, from a former professional ballet dancer who tricks her body to move freely again to a patient who cannot walk but astounds doctors when he is able to ride a bicycle with no trouble at all. With the baby boom generation beginning to retire and the population steadily aging, the race is on to discover a means to stop or reverse neurodegenerative conditions like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Brain Storms is the long-overdue, riveting, and deeply personal story of that race, and a passionate, insightful, and urgent look into the lives of those affected.

WARNING: THIS VIDEO GAME MAY IMPAIR YOUR JUDGMENT. IT MAY CAUSE SLEEP DEPRIVATION, ALIENATION OF FRIENDS AND FAMILY, WEIGHT LOSS OR GAIN, NEGLECT OF YOUR BASIC NEEDS AS WELL AS THE NEEDS OF LOVED ONES AND/OR DEPENDENTS, AND DECREASED PERFORMANCE ON THE JOB. THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN FANTASY AND REALITY MAY BECOME BLURRED. PLAY AT YOUR OWN RISK. NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR SUICIDE ATTEMPTS. No such warning was included on the latest and greatest release from the Warcraft series of massive multiplayer online role-playing games—World of Warcraft (WoW). So when Ryan Van Cleave—a college professor, husband, father, and one of the 11.5 million Warcraft subscribers worldwide—found himself teetering on the edge of the Arlington Memorial Bridge, he had no one to blame but himself. He had neglected his wife and children and had jeopardized his livelihood, all for the rush of living a life of high adventure in a virtual world. A fabulously written and gripping tale, Unplugged takes you on a journey through the author's semireclusive life with video games at the center of his experiences. Even when he was sexually molested by a young school teacher at age eleven, it was the promise of a new video game that had lured him to her house. As Ryan's life progresses, we witness the evolution of video games—from simple two-button consoles to today's multikey technology, brilliantly designed to keep the user actively participating. For Ryan, the virtual world was a siren-song he couldn't ignore, no matter the cost. As is the case with most recovering addicts, Ryan eventually hit rock bottom and shares with you his ongoing battle to control his impulses to play, providing prescriptive advice and resources for those caught in the grip of this very real addiction.

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.

Integrative Addiction and Recovery offers an authentic model of comprehensive integrative modalities germane and specific to the field of addiction and recovery treatment. Although many treatment services for addiction include "holistic," "alternative," or "integrative" in their descriptions, they contain no substantive programs or services consistent with the mind, body, spirit paradigm contained within the integrative approach to health and healing. Consequently, many patients do not have the opportunity to benefit from the true spirit of an integrative approach within the discipline of addition and recovery medicine. This book sets the standard for a bona fide integrative approach for others to follow, providing information that is immediately useful in clinical practice and rigorously evidence-based. Authored by world-class experts in the field of addiction medicine, Integrative Addiction and Recovery presents both scientific and holistic data regarding a wide variety of holistic and conventional approaches to the treatment of substance abuse and behavioral addictions. Its chapters cover both conventional and holistic treatment and provide background for each of the major classes of drugs of abuse, including opiates, alcohol, tobacco, stimulants, sedative-hypnotics, hallucinogens and marijuana. It also includes chapters on the topics of food addiction and behavioral addictions such as gambling and shopping. The authors explore the major holistic modalities, providing background and theory in areas like acupuncture, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Homeopathy, Aromatherapy, and Ayurvedic Medicine, while at the same time providing spiritual approach chapters on Shamanism and Ibogaine, as well as more conventional issues with a holistic view including Co-Occurring Disorders and Psychosocial Treatment, and Group Support. The very complex issue of chronic pain and addiction is also addressed, along with relapse prevention strategies.

Using a popular case history format, this book presents a scientific history of neurotrauma. It covers a range of well-known cases, including Roald Dahl, James Brady and Walter Freeman to give insights into a variety of a variety of neurotrauma causes and effects, from aphasia and amnesia to lobotomy and mercury toxicity. Cases are connected to clinical research methods, exploring how these methods have changed over time and illustrating how these cases are still relevant as we continue to learn about recovery from brain and spinal cord injuries. Focusing on individuals who survived their injuries beyond the acute phase, the book highlights the long-term behavioral effects of the injuries and provides estimates for prognoses and recovery pathways in acknowledgement of naturally occurring neuroregeneration. With helpful key term definitions, Matyas distinguishes fact from fiction to give an accurate account of a wide spectrum of cases and highlight what we can learn from them. Famous Case Histories in Neurotraumais valuable reading for students in behavioral neuroscience, clinical neuropsychology and related fields Jessica Matyas is Visiting Professor at the Department of Psychology, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne with research and teaching experience. She has previously published in the area of spinal cord injury and is an authority in this aspect of CNS trauma. .

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR, PARADE, REAL SIMPLE, and BUZZFEED AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK "[Moore’s] careful balance of the hard-bitten with the heartfelt is what elevates Long Bright River from entertaining page-turner to a book that makes you want to call someone you love.” – The New York Times Book Review "This is police procedural and a thriller par excellence, one in which the city of Philadelphia itself is a character (think Boston and Mystic River). But it’s also a literary tale narrated by a strong woman with a richly drawn personal life – powerful and genre-defying.” – People "A thoughtful, powerful novel by a writer who displays enormous compassion for her characters. Long Bright River is an outstanding crime novel… I absolutely loved it." —Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Girl on the Train Two sisters travel the same streets, though their lives couldn't be more different. Then one of them goes missing. In a Philadelphia neighborhood rocked by the opioid crisis, two once-inseparable sisters find themselves at odds. One, Kacey, lives on the streets in the vise of addiction. The other, Mickey, walks those same blocks on her police beat. They don't speak anymore, but Mickey never stops worrying about her sibling. Then Kacey disappears, suddenly, at the same time that a mysterious string of murders begins in Mickey's district, and Mickey becomes dangerously obsessed with finding the culprit--and her sister--before it's too late. Alternating its present-day mystery with the story of the sisters' childhood and adolescence, Long Bright River is at once heart-pounding and heart-wrenching: a gripping suspense novel that is also a moving story of sisters, addiction, and the formidable ties that persist between place, family, and fate.