ALERT

[Parkinson's Action Network <ParkActNet@xxxxxxx>]

Please tell everyone you know to watch this program!!

ALERT

To:   People interested in Parkinson's disease
From: Joan I. Samuelson, President
Date:     July 26, 1995
Subject:  "PrimeTime Live" segment TONIGHT on "The Case of the Frozen
Addicts"
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  Tonight ABC News' "PrimeTime Live" will air Frozen Addicts  -- the story
behind the
just-published book, "The Case of the Frozen Addicts."  The show will air at
10:00 p.m.
(9:00 p.m. CDT).  (Check your local listings.)

  "The Case of the Frozen Addicts:  How the Solution of an Extraordinary
Medical Mystery
Spawned a Revolution in the Understanding and Treatment of Parkinson's
Disease", by J.
William Langston, M.D. and Jon Palfreman, is the story of a mysterious case
of paralysis
discovered in California in 1982.  Neurologist Langston recognizes the
symptoms of advanced
Parkinson's disease and administers L-dopa, the only known effective
treatment, and
"unfreezes" the patient.  Five other patients are found, as is the source of
the problem:  a bad
batch of heroin, a by-product of which attacked and destroyed the patients'
substantia nigra,
the same area of the brain that deteriorates in Parkinson's.

  The narrative goes on to describe the major breakthrough resulting from
this saga:  the
discovery of MPTP as an animal model of Parkinson's.  The story ends with the
struggle to
find long-term treatments for Langston's patients to replace the short-term
relief of L-dopa.
The then-daring solution lay in Sweden, where four of the victims were sent
for fetal tissue
transplants, with remarkable results.  The results of this serendipitous
beginning have
advanced Parkinson's research on several fronts.

  Dr. Langston is president of the Parkinson's Institute in Sunnyvale,
California.  Mr.
Palfreman, a senior producer at WGBH, Boston, is an award-winning writer and
producer of
medical and scientific documentaries.

  The book is published by Pantheon ($25.00) and is now available in
bookstores.

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For more information about "The Case of the Frozen Addicts", please contact
Jane Gabel at
202/628-2075.