Intoxication and neurology: A Dream Within a Dream. / Rus og nevrologi: A Dream Within a Dream.

The author Edgar Allan Poe is one of many artists who describe how it feels to live with major, involuntary changes of consciousness. Are the large upturns and downturns in his life attributable to a neurological conditions, or can substance use and depressive thoughts explain these fluctuations?

Epilepsy and anxiety. / Epilepsi og angst.

Up to one-quarter of people with epilepsy have mental health disorders in addition to seizures. Depression has received the most attention although anxiety disorders occur just as frequently, if not more so. Even though psychiatric symptoms can reduce quality of life more than epileptic seizures, they continue to go unnoticed and untreated.

Post-lobotomy epilepsy illustrated by the story of Ellinor Hamsun, the daughter of the famous Norwegian author Knut Hamsun.

In Scandinavia, at least 11.500 people were lobotomized in the period 1939-1983. Beside grave personality changes, the surgery caused epilepsy in 10-35% of the patients. Moreover, many died due to perioperative bleedings, convulsive status epilepticus or SUDEP. Most of the stories of these people are anonymous and their post-lobotomy lives are scarcely documented. If it was not for the fact that Ellinor Hamsun (1916-1987) was the daughter of the famous Nobel Prize winning Norwegian author Knut Hamsun, her lobotomy story and the subsequent iatrogenic epilepsy would probably have remained unknown.

The hanging of Derek Bentley, a 19-year-old boy with epilepsy.

Derek Bentley (1933-1953) was sentenced to death by hanging at the age of 19. He was convicted as a party to murder, and he died in Wandsworth Prison in London. After the police had reached the crime scene, he ostensibly shouted to his 16-year-old friend Christopher (Chris) Craig the ambiguous phrase, "Let him have it, Chris!" Chris fired shots at two policemen, wounding one and killing another. Derek Bentley had epilepsy and a mental age of about 11, and he could neither read nor write. In 1993, 40years after his death, he received a posthumous pardon from the British government. Five years later, his case was finally quashed.

Traditional folk beliefs on epilepsy in Norway and Sweden.

In Norway and Sweden, epilepsy has for many centuries been considered a strange and mysterious disease. The explanations of its causes have been many and imaginative. One being that epilepsy was caused by the hidden people inhabiting the woods and the mountains. To avoid the disease, these hidden people should not be annoyed. One commonly used treatment principle was to try to place the disease back to the ground, or passing the diseased through a hole or an opening in the nature. Fresh blood from criminals was also considered to have strong antiepileptic properties. In the Scandinavian countries, some of these folk beliefs have been very tenacious.

Aicardi syndrome and cognitive abilities: A report of five cases.

Aicardi syndrome is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder with agenesis of corpus callosum, chorioretinal lacunae, and infantile spasms as the main features. The outcome is in general severe, with poor cognitive development and difficult-to-treat epilepsy. In this study, we assessed the level of cognitive function of five girls with Aicardi syndrome, using normed population based tests and questionnaires. Their cognitive abilities varied from mild to profound intellectual disabilities. The more severe the epilepsy, the poorer were the cognitive skills. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that systematically applies validated cognitive assessment tools to study patients with this syndrome. Knowledge about cognitive functioning is crucial for providing optimal special education and finding appropriate alternative communication with parents and caregivers.

Ian Curtis: Punk rock, epilepsy, and suicide.

Ian Curtis was the front man of the post-punk band Joy Division. He suffered from epilepsy and actively incorporated his experiences of the disease in his lyrics. Curtis had frequent epileptic seizures, both on and off stage. After dying from suicide in 1980, he became a legend in the post-punk milieu. The impact which the epilepsy, the epilepsy treatment, and comorbid depression had on his artistic life and premature death is not well known.

Epilepsy is Dancing.

In "Epilepsy is Dancing", in Antony and the Johnsons' album "The Crying Light"(2009), the lyrics and accompanying music video depicts an epileptic seizure in which the person is transferred to another beautiful and magical world. This may be called "enchanted epilepsy"; i.e., the experience of epilepsy as deeply nourishing and (positively) transforming, is conveyed not only in the lyrics but also the visual and auditory qualities of the video. The seizure in the video gives associations to Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's dream". If epilepsy appears in music lyrics, the focus is mostly on negative aspects of the illness, such as horror, fear and repulsive sexuality associated with the fits [1,2]. Contradictory to these lyrics, Anthony and the Johnsons' song is an example of a positive portrayal of epilepsy. It is open to a multitude of meanings, emotional valence and appraisal of epilepsy. By widening the experiential range associated with epileptic seizures, these lyrics highlight the inherently construed nature of epileptic experience. The song stands out in several ways. First, it describes epilepsy in positive terms, prioritising the euphoric, ecstatic, potentially empowering and enhancing aspects of epileptic seizures. Second, the lyrics and accompanying video point to divine experiences associated with epileptic seizures. Through the lyrics and the music video we are, as an audience, able to sense a snicket of an epileptic seizure, but also the universal experience of loosing control.

Treatment for psychogenic non-epileptic seizures.

The main differential diagnosis of epilepsy among young adults is psychogenic non-epileptic seizures. Such seizures may manifest themselves in very different ways and usually have complex root causes. Optimal treatment of persons experiencing seizures of this type requires close cooperation between the neurologist and the psychiatrist.

Aicardi syndrome: an epidemiologic and clinical study in Norway.

BACKGROUND: Aicardi syndrome is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder. The main diagnostic features are agenesis of corpus callosum, chorioretinal lacunae, and infantile spasms. The outcome is in general severe, with poor cognitive development and difficult-to-treat epilepsy. The aim of this study was to perform a nationwide epidemiologic survey of patients with Aicardi syndrome and describe their clinical features. Norway is a small country with a well-developed health system, making epidemiologic studies of rare diseases feasible and reliable. METHODS: We aimed at identifying all patients diagnosed with Aicardi syndrome in Norway. Prevalence of Aicardi syndrome was calculated for January 1, 2011. All available patients were examined, and their medical records were scrutinized. RESULTS: Six females aged 7 to 27 years with the diagnosis of Aicardi syndrome were identified. With a female population of 949,578 in ages 0 to 29 years, we found an age-adjusted prevalence of 0.63 per 100,000 females. One patient never had epileptic seizures. The other five had all experienced infantile spasms, all had at some point hypsarrhythmia in electroencephalography, two had a clear picture of suppression burst, whereas three had periods of suppression. Four of the five patients with seizure disorders experienced a marked improvement with time. CONCLUSION: We found an age-adjusted prevalence of 0.63 per 100,000 females with Aicardi syndrome and that their seizure disorder appeared to improve with age.