Samuel Livingston

The effect of adrenocorticotropic hormone in epilepsy

Summary The effects of ACTH, DOC, and cortisone have been studied in six childrenwith epilepsy. In four of these ACTH produced improvement in the EEG or in the clinical condition. DOC had a beneficial effect on the brain wave in one of the two patients given this drug.

Abdominal pain as a manifestation of epilepsy (Abdominal epilepsy) in children

Summary 1. Clinical and electroencephalographic studies on fourteen children who suffered with recurrent paroxysmal attacks of abdominal pain considered to be of cerebral origin (abdominal epilepsy) are presented. 2. All of these patients presented one or more of the following features: a. Recurrent attacks of abdominal pain followed by postictal-like exhaustion and sleep. b. Electroencephalographic abnormalities. c. A favorable clinical response to Dilantin therapy.

The use of benzedrine and dexedrine sulfatein the treatment of epilepsy

Summary 1. Eighty-five epileptic patients, mostly children, were treated with benzedrine or dexedrine sulfate; the seizures were controlled in 38 per cent and markedly or moderately improved in 20 per cent. 2. These drugs were more effective in controlling petit mal than grand mal seizures. 3. There was no difference in the results in idiopathic and organic epilepsy.

Familial degeneration of the cerebral gray matter in childhood with convulsions, myoclonus, spasticity, cerebellar ataxia, choreoathetosis, dementia, and death in status epilepticus; differentiation of infantile and juvenile types.

Summary We have described four cases of degeneration of the cerebral gray matter in childhood running a progressive course to a fatal outcome. The clinical features of this condition include convulsions, myoclonus, spasticity, choreoathetosis, cerebellar ataxia, and dementia. It is sometimes a familial disease. There is always degeneration of the deeper layers of the cerebral cortex and sometimes degenerative changes in the basal ganglia of the forebrain, thalami, and cerebellum. We have distinguished infantile and juvenile types of this disease. Christensen and Krabbe term this condition poliodystrophia cerebri progressiva infantilis . Perhaps, we might designate it in English as degeneration of the cerebral gray matter of Alpers .

The Hopkins Games Program: Conclusions from Seven Years of Research

Since September, 1966, the central question uniting and guidng the research of the Games Program at The Johns Hopkins Universitys Center for Social Organization of Schools has been: How do games create and influence learning? Natural games (i.e., sports and games that children play in their free time, unsupervised by adults) and instructional games (both simulation and non-simulation games) have been studied to determine how playing a game with a defined social organization or structure contributes to learning.

BEHAVIOR: Masturbation Simulating Epilepsy

Tlic seven-year-old girl was referred to our center for “better seizure control.” She \\.as tlie product of a nine-month uncomplicated pregnancy, normal delivery, and wiglied 3.7 kg at birth. hlotor and language development Iiacl been normal. She was now in grade 1 and doing average work. T h e father, age 32, is a liigli school teacher; the mother, age 30, is a housewife who had attended college for two years. Both are healthy, with no consanguinity. Two other siblings, a girl age nine years and a boy age four years, are healthy. At 3 years 4 months of age, this patient started to have daily twoto thrce-minute episodes of rocking movements of the body. She would go lo an obscure corner or another room, lie on lier abdomen, stiffen her body, rock back and forth, stare blankly, and then sweat profusely. She would then resume her normal play activities. or might seem drowsy and fall asleep. Two months later, she was hospitalized for investigation of this condition. Urinalyses, blood chemistries and counts, cerebrospinal fluid examination, skull x-ray, and brain scan were all within normal limits. An EEG recording !\.as read as “irregular spike activity in the

Hypertrichosis occurring in association with dilantintherapy

Summary The occurrence of hypertrichosis insixteen epileptic patients treated with Dilantin is reported.

Etiologic factors in adult convulsions; an analysis of 689 patients whose attacks began after twenty years of age.

THE present paper is a report on the presumptive etiologic factor in 689 patients who experienced their first major motor (grand-mal) convulsion after twenty years of age. The convulsion was genera...

Infantile Febrile Convulsions

THERE is some diversity of opinion on the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of convulsions which occur in association with an elevation of temperature during infancy. The findings of most of the investigations done on this subject, and the recommendations made, are set out by Frantzen et al. (1968), Livingston (1954) and Millichap ( 1968). In our clinic, we classify infantile febrile convulsions, excluding those which occur with intracranial infections (meningitis, etc.), or with diseases which adversely affect the central nervous system (roseola infantum, shigella gastroenteritis, etc.) or other disorders known to be toxic to the brain, into two groups: (A) Simple febrile convulsions. (B) Epileptic seizures precipitated by

Primidone (mysoline) in the treatment of epilepsy; results of treatment of 486 patients and review of the literature.

THE first report dealing with the use of primidone (Mysoline) in the treatment of epilepsy was presented in 1952 by Handley and Stewart.1 Many other investigators2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 1...