Interesting

The drug pictured, midazolam, might be familiar if you've ever been through a procedure. It's Versed®.

Study finds new help for people with seizures

Injecting patients in the thigh with a drug-loaded syringe is a safe and effective way to stop a seizure in an emergency, according to results of a national study released today, a finding which could pave the way toward making such syringes as widely available as EpiPens used to treat severe allergic reactions.

The two-year study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, concluded that a single stab from an auto-injector was more effective in stopping a prolonged seizure than the traditional method of inserting an intravenous line and delivering the drug directly into the bloodstream.

The results are likely to quickly change how such seizures, which can be life-threatening if they're not stopped quickly, are treated by paramedics. But they could have more long-term repercussions, if doctors start giving the auto-injectors to epileptic patients, some of whom have several severe seizures a year, to use at home, much as people with severe allergies carry epinephrine syringes with them.

I learned a new yet horrific word today

Courtesy of Rebecca Skloot, in her book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: pneumoencephalography

“I later learned that while Elsie was at Crownsville, scientists often conducted research on patients there without consent, including one study titled "Pneumoencephalographic and skull X-ray studies in 100 epileptics." Pneumoencephalography was a technique developed in 1919 for taking images of the brain, which floats in a sea of liquid. That fluid protects the brain from damage, but makes it very difficult to X-ray, since images taken through fluid are cloudy. Pneumoencephalography involved drilling holes into the skulls of research subjects, draining the fluid surrounding their brains, and pumping air or helium into the skull in place of the fluid to allow crisp X-rays of the brain through the skull. the side effects--crippling headaches, dizziness, seizures, vomiting--lasted until the body naturally refilled the skull with spinal fluid, which usually took two to three months. Because pneumoencephalography could cause permanent brain damage and paralysis, it was abandoned in the 1970s.

"There is no evidence that the scientists who did research on patients at Crownsville got consent from either the patients or their parents. Bases on the number of patients listed in the pneumoencephalography studyand the years it was conducted, Lurz told me later, it most likely involved every epileptic child in the hospital including Elsie. The same is likely true of at least one other study called "The Use of Deep Temporal Leads in the Study of Psychomotor Epilepsy," which involved inserting metal probes into patients' brains.”

[Thanks to the folks at Goodreads for putting up the quote. I'd already returned my copy of the book to the library and needed the passage, although I had to correct some typos.]

Elsie Lacks, the oldest daughter of Henrietta and David Lacks, died at age 15 in 1955 at the Crownsville, originally known as the 'Hospital for the Negro Insane'. Elsie was diagnosed with mental retardation, epilepsy, and cerebral palsy, although she may have inherited the family trait for deafness. It's hard to tell what her exact diagnosis should have been. Children at the time were often misdiagnosed and locked away in institutions rather than receiving help. Skloot's description of conditions at Crownsville are chilling, and a photograph provides a window into how Elsie was treated, although there is a lot of room left to the imagination of the reader for just how bad it was.

Gods, I should't read such stories that make me blubber

but Danny Stanton, only 4, really *lived* and that's something to take in when you're 42 and still trying to figure it out.

Little boy's big legacy teaches others how to live: Danny Stanton, 4, died of a seizure 14 days before Christmas

The disarming smile of a 4-year-old boy with a buzz cut brightens an otherwise drab newspaper page, where whole lives are summed up in three inches of tiny newsprint.

Danny Stanton's death notice first makes you wonder how he died. But the eight haunting, final words make you want to know how he lived: "Please go and enjoy your life. Danny did."

Danny had a seizure disorder, always having them at night as he slept, a scary thing for any parent to deal with. But it was his personality that defined Danny, and not his illness. And for someone who was only on the planet four short years, he was a gifted young child who touched many people's lives and left them mourning but celebrating how he lived his life.

FDA Warns Epilepsy Drugs May Raise Suicide Risk

The drugs included in the warning are: Carbamazepine (marketed as Carbatrol, Equetro, Tegretol, Tegretol XR), Felbamate (marketed as Felbatol), Gabapentin (marketed as Neurontin), Lamotrigine (marketed as Lamictal), Levetiracetam (marketed as Keppra), Oxcarbazepine (marketed as Trileptal), Pregabalin (marketed as Lyrica), Tiagabine (marketed as Gabitril), Topiramate (marketed as Topamax), Valproate (marketed as Depakote, Depakote ER, Depakene, Depacon) and Zonisamide (marketed as Zonegran). Some of these drugs are also available as generics.

Well, it makes sense. I'm on Lamictal for bipolar II disorder, and if it can level your mood for some people, then it stands to reason it can muck with it in others, since it's affecting brain chemistry. But I thought I'd pass that warning along.