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From: dyer@spdcc.UUCP (Steve Dyer)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: PBS Nova program -- 'The Case of the Frozen Addict'
Message-ID: <12@spdcc.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Feb-86 23:13:24 EST
Article-I.D.: spdcc.12
Posted: Tue Feb 18 23:13:24 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 20-Feb-86 08:15:19 EST
Organization: S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting, Cambridge MA
Lines: 21
Keywords: designer drugs, Parkinsonism

I urge anyone who missed this Nova episode (it aired this evening, Tuesday,
2/18 in Boston) to make a point of catching it later in the week on reruns,
for it is simply one of the best scientific/medical programs for the educated
layperson I've ever seen.

It deals with the mysterious phenomena first noticed in 1982, when a
number of heroin addicts in California were found literally 'frozen',
no longer able to move voluntarily, with symptoms clinically
indistinguishable from severe Parkinson's Disease.  The program
provides a fascinating glimpse into the fields of medicinal chemistry,
pharmacology and neurology, and how, through this tragic accident
of a designer drug gone awry, the treatment of people with ideopathic
(that is, cause-unknown) Parkinsonism might be revolutionized and
its cause possibly discovered.

The narration is extraordinarily lucid, and, together with excellent
graphics, conveys the essence of these unfamiliar subjects.
-- 
Steve Dyer
dyer@harvard.HARVARD.EDU
{bbncca,bbnccv,harvard}!spdcc!dyer