Sleep and Health Journal

London Bridge is Falling

By Mahantesh Karoshi, MD, MRCOG

6/2/2007

Dear Editor,

My letter will be short this month, because I have been exceedingly busy with clinical work. But I have not forgotten that the purpose of this column is to acquaint your readers with the going on in Medicine in the United Kingdom where we share a common language and often differ completely when things are said.

Going to the Dogs - Can Canines Detect Epileptic Seizures?

In two studies published in the January 23 Neurology, investigators examined the reported ability of dogs to predict or respond to their owners’ seizures. Both research teams found evidence that these dogs may be responding to psychogenic non-epileptic seizures rather than to epileptic events.

The
Silent ADHD Stimulant Non-Responder: A Case For Eliminating Managed Care While Delivering Better Medicine At A Lower Cost – Part 4

By Joel Taylor

In continuation from last issue…

A clinician scans 100’s of lab results every week to see results that he expected
to see. Why? Because he is looking for the occasional result that causes him to stop in his tracks and re-think a diagnosis or modify a treatment plan. In fact, if a test result never causes him to do anything he would not have done without it, he either stops ordering it or stops looking at the results. In Sam’s case, the Adderall should have caused the activity indicators to shift to the left towards normal. They obviously did not. Why not? Is this significant or an anomaly?

Creative Illness: When Physicists and Artists Find a Common Language

By Alexander Golbin, MD

Illness is a bad thing by definition. Illness, disorder, disease – all these words reflect physical disability, a crash of one’s dreams and downhill path on the quality of life.

We struggle to prevent illnesses and fight with them when they come upon us at any cost.

The optimism of 60s, when the public and professionals believed that triumphs of science and medicine would soon solve the mysteries of all diseases, that we would soon find treatments for every disorder and live happily thereafter has faded away.

FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH GAMBLING IN PARKINSON’S DISEASE
Researchers at the NINDS have identified key characteristics of patients with Parkinson’s disease who have been susceptible to dopaminergic drug-related gambling. Patients with Parkinson’s disease who have the greatest risk of gambling urges following dopamine therapy have the following characteristics:

Energy Drinks are the “Rave”, but do they Affect your Sleep?

By Nikos M. Linardakis, M.D.

The Natural Sleep Doctor™

What a wonderful selection of cold drinks we can select from these days. It seems that the modern convenience store is filled with new products called “Energy Drinks” which range from brands like RedBull® to Who’s Your Daddy®? I know who my father was, but does it take an energy drink these days to remember who your father was? Are we forgetting basic nutrition at the expense of an energy jolt?

I Spoke Too Soon

By Natalie Seliber, BS, MA

I was shocked to read the headline of USA Today 12/12/06. Coming decades after many of us thought this problem was solved in the 1980s!

Medicalizing Overweight/Obesity

The Medical Model for Weight Management

Part 4

By Mitchell R. Weisberg, M.D., M.P.

Medications approved for treatment of Obesity but only for short term use:

Phentermine: Phentermine is a stimulant medication that works in the brain to increase the neurochemicals, dopamine and norepinepherine. This results in a decrease in appetite with a resultant weight loss of approximately 10% of original body weight. The reason for its FDA approval for short term use only is not related to safety issues beyond short term use. Rather it has to do with the era in which Phentermine came to market. In the 50s and 60s, obesity was widely viewed as a character flaw, not as a chronic disease that required long term treatment as we now know that it is. Phentermine has been prescribed off label for long term therapy as long as it has been on the market and can be done safely as long as it is closely monitored.

Blood is everywhere. The cries and screams of those around you seem distant, yet burrow deep into the core of your soul. Shots ring out to echo through the halls and your mind; they compete with the tragic beats of your heart. Explosions rock the floor under your feet.

Two gunmen entered the Columbine High School in Colorado on April 20, 1999. Their actions have gone down in history as one of the most horrendous massacres against students and faculty. Thirteen were killed and many more wounded, but the first victim was Rachel Scott, seventeen years old. The perpetrators, Harris and Klebold, who were responsible for the shootings, shot Rachel after she told them she believed on God.

Who Are You? Where Am I?

(An Extended Case Report of Post-Sleep Hallucinations)

By Alexander Golbin, M.D.

Rosalie is an attractive 32 year-old woman who was referred to a sleep clinic for an evaluation of her chronic fatigue and strange sleep-like condition. According to the patient, about six years ago strange things started to happen with her without any identifiable cause. She experienced lapses of time, lapses of memory, and a strange feeling of not recognizing what were previously familiar places or persons.