Oliver Sacks "Awakenings"

Author: Oliver Sacks Title: Awakenings Original title: Awakenings Genre: popular science Medical topic: neurology, encephalitis lethargica, L-dopa Year of first publication: 1973 (worldwide), 1997 (Poland) Description: "Awakenings" is an extraordinary book. It describes human worlds—worlds that are strange and incomprehensible, yet inhabited by people just like us, people who could truly be themselves. Dr. Oliver Sacks provides a detailed account of the stories of twenty of his eighty patients at Mount Carmel Hospital in New York State, who suffered from encephalitis lethargica, an epidemic that occurred in the years following World War I. Day by day, he meticulously describes their condition before he dared to administer a new drug in the 1960s: L-DOPA; their reactions, likened to waking from a sleep that usually lasted several decades; and the drug’s side effects, which sometimes forced him to discontinue it and return to square one. We also learn the history of the disease itself—encephalitis lethargica, likened to a hundred-headed hydra due to its highly varied clinical presentation—the medical world’s reactions to Dr. Sacks’ reports of miraculous awakenings, as well as the dangers posed by L-dopa, then regarded as a miracle drug. A film of the same title was made based on the book, starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams.