The Case of the Frozen Addicts: How the Solution of a Medical Mystery Revolutionized the Understanding of Parkinson's Disease - Softcover

Langston, J.W.; Palfreman, J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1614993319 ISBN 13: 9781614993315

Publisher: IOS Press, 2014

Synopsis

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 Parkinsons 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 Parkinsons 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 Parkinsons, Alzheimers, 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 brains 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 humanitys most intractable medical problems, and then catapults the reader into the center of Americas hottest political arena abortion and fetal sanctity. Bravo! A brilliant read. Laurie Garrett, author of The Coming Plague 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 [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

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About this title

From the Inside Flap:

ting 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 Library Journal:

In 1982, six patients appeared in California clinics displaying mysterious symptoms: their bodies were so stiff that they appeared to be frozen. Langston, currently the president of the California Parkinson's Foundation, was one of the first physicians to examine the patients. He discovered that they had all injected a "designer" drug into their systems that created symptoms similar to Parkinson's disease. Through excellent detective work and a good deal of pure luck, Langston located the chemical MPTP, which also produced Parkinsonian symptoms in primates. That discovery was of supreme medical importance, providing Langston and other researchers with the ability to test Parkinson's treatments on animal models. New approaches, including fetal tissue transplantation, could now be pursued. Langston's book intersperses discussions of recent research on Parkinson's while continuing to report on the progress of the "frozen addicts." A fast-paced medical detective format makes this a fascinating and immensely informative work. Highly recommended for most libraries.?Tina Neville, Univ. of South Florida at St. Petersburg Lib.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: IOS Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1614993319
• ISBN 13: 9781614993315
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 264