AwakeningsThe classic account of survivors of the sleeping-sickness during the great epidemic just after World War I—and their return to the world after decades of “sleep.” • From the distinguished neurologist and the bestselling author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat “One of the most beautifully composed and moving works of our time." —The Washington Post Awakenings—which inspired the major motion picture starring Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams—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. |
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able activity akathisia akinesia amantadine attacks became become behaviour brain catatonia chorea clinical completely continued crisis disabled disorders documentary film dopamine dosage dose of L-DOPA drug dystonia effects encephalitic encephalitis lethargica epidemic excitement experience extreme eyes feel felt festination film of Awakenings forced hallucinations Havelock Ellis Hester hospital illness infinite intense Kind of Alaska Leibniz Leonard Leonard L living look Miss H months motion motionless motor Mount Carmel Mount Carmel Hospital move movement MPTP nature never normal nurses observed occur oculogyric crises once palilalia Parkin Parkinson's disease Parkinsonian patients Parkinsonism pathological perhaps physiological possible post-encephalitic patients posture psychosis reactions to L-DOPA response rigidity Rolando seemed seen sense severe showed side-effects sleep sleeping-sickness sometimes sort speak speech started stopped strange substantia nigra sudden suddenly symptoms syndrome therapeutic things thought tics tion tremor violent walk weeks