Awakenings Response: Dr. Sayer And His Patients

The movie Awakenings is a true story about a neurologist played by Robin Williams, at a hospital in the Bronx, who discovers a drug L-Dopa in which helps temporarily with unresponsive patients. Leonard Lowe who is played by Robert Deniro and the other patients are given this new age drug and are forced to adapt to the world around them that has been changing ever since they began to be catatonic.

Also, from the viewpoint of neuroscience, Leonard confabulates some of the stories on the day of the incident. He thought that his wife was killed by the assailant and wanted to take revenge all along; however, his wife was not dead at that time. It was Leonard himself who had killed his wife by giving her insulin shots more than

“Shortly after Hayden’s fifth birthday, he began having headaches and nausea. At first, the doctor thought he had migraines and asked his mother to keep a record of when his head hurt. After only a short period of time, Hayden’s headaches grew more frequent. Then, he began having trouble with the vision in his right eye causing him to see double. It was at this point, his mother knew there was a bigger issue at hand.

Neurasthenia is the nervous disease the narrator is suffering from. Gilman expresses if the narrator is ill or if the “rest cure” treatment she is on is making her crazy(Wilson). Weir Mitchell was the authors/narrators doctor who prescribed her the “rest cure” treatment, which did not succeed(Gilman). The narrator tells her husband to help her and change the treatment, but he refuses her desires. As a result, the narrator became insane because her husband forced his wife to be in an oppressed situation with her health(MacPike).

Stressor in the patient's life that disrupts sleep. There is usually a history of sleepwalking and a family vulnerability to the disorder. The parasomnia usually occurs in the first part of the night in a NREM stage. After the event the patient is utterly amnestic for the episode and attempts no cover-up of the deed. There is grief, remorse and efforts to cooperate in the investigation. Cartwright sees it as an obligation of the scientist that when he or she has

2. The narrator suffers from catalepsy, a physical condition in which the individual cannot move or speak for hours or, in extreme cases, for months. According to the narrator’s explanation, what are some of the ways that one can tell a cataleptic is still living?

The patient exhibited cues of overall withdrawal from daily activities, notably those he regularly enjoyed like “cooking for his girlfriend and caring for the house.”3 Along with the expressed concern from his children and the stated desire to no longer live. Sonja’s visual assessment of the gentleman appearing lost and confused standing in the hallway supported the patterns of depression. However, during her first visual glimpse of the elderly man in the hallway, Sonja noticed he was well groomed and dressed, which might not be typical of an individual with major depression who lacks the “motivation to do anything.”4 This cue was followed by his anxious voice combined with abnormal gait of stopping and shuffling his feet. These new visual and audible cues created a second hypothesis comparing the patterns Sonja had observed on a patient in the past. Through her interpretation of these new cues on examination and questioning the patient in greater detail, Sonja discovered that the source of the depression originates from the gentleman’s inability to adequately move around to perform daily activities to his standards. Interpreting these patterns as possibly the early stages of Parkinson’s disease, she referred him to the neurology department for further examination and her hypothesis was

Throughout the novel the postapocalyptic duo encounter many situations that challenge their reasoning and defensive mechanisms.

Simuni, T., & Hurting, H. (2008). Levodopa: a pharmacologic miracle four decades later. In Factor, S.A. & Weiner, W.J. (Eds.), Parkinson’s Disease: Diagnosis and Clinical Management. New York, NY: Demos Medical Publishing.

Deperenyl is, reversibly, inhibiting the monoamine oxidase B ( MAO-B). Being lipophilic helped the deprenyl to penetrate the tissues. Later, deprenyl name changed to be Selegiline, which had the ability to prolong the levodopa effect and potentiate it only inside the central nervous system, not in serum. Accordingly; it delays the progression of the signs and symptoms of Parkinson disease. [26[26]]

Focus Statement: Levodopa (L-DOPA) is a drug which enters the brain and changes its composition to dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is low in Parkinson's disease.It is a most popular treatment to control the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

The Earlier versus Later Levodopa Therapy in Parkinson Disease (ELLDOPA) study was a multicentre, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial involving 361 patients. The eligible subjects recruited were 30 years of age or older, in their early stages of PD based on the modified HY scale of less than stage 3 (Table 1.1) (Hoehn and Yahr, 1967) and were considered certainly not required therapy for parkinsonian symptoms within the nine months after enrolment to the study. The exclusion criteria for participation in the study were patients who were receiving antiparkinson medication, had been exposed to levodopa or any DA for more than 14 days, able to identify the cause of parkinsonism or had a tremor in any limb that was given a score

Leonard suffered from this condition after being knocked out while trying to stop two men, who broke into his house in the middle of the night, from raping and murdering his wife. Leonard managed to kill one of the two men but took a severe blow to the head and since then lost his short term memory. Leonard’s story is about his quest to find the man who got away. The man who killed his spouse and ruined his life, while under the handicap of not being able form new memories. Leonard aids himself by using a Polaroid to take pictures of key places and people and tattoos his whole body with the more important information and events regarding his investigation.

This is a article about how neuroscientist may have discovered a way to slow down the progression of Parkinson's disease. Parkinson's disease affects over 1 million people in the United States. Parkinson disease is a progressive disease that affects the nervous system. With this condition, you experienced tremors,muscular rigidity and slow and precise movements. The effects of disease is associated with degeneration of the basal ganglia of the brain and the deficiency of the neurotransmitter dopamine. According to the neurosciences Gary W.Miller PhD. An unequaitable double amount of dopamine stored can be extremely harmful to the neurons in

Parkinson disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized mainly by physical and psychological disabilities. This disorder was named after James Parkinson, an English physician who first described it as shaking palsy in 1817 (Goetz, Factr, and Weiner, 2002). Jean- Martin Charcot, who was a French neurologist, then progressed and further refined the description of the disease and identified other clinical features of PD (Goetz, Factr, and Weiner, 2002). PD involves the loss of cells that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine in a part of the brain stem called the substansia nigra, which results in several signs and symptoms (Byrd, Marks, and Starr, 2000). It is manifested clinically by tremor,