Monday, December 17, 2012

A Young Reporter Chronicles Her 'Brain On Fire' | Essentials

A Young Reporter Chronicles Her 'Brain On Fire'

"Where is my mind", les dernières folies de Goin sur la décadence de l'Occident... _DDC7618 by Abode of Chaos
License (according to Flickr): Attribution License
Excerpt:

In 2009, Susannah Cahalan was a healthy 24-year-old reporter for the New York Post, when she began to experience tingling, paranoia, sensitiveness to light and erratic behavior. Grasping for an answer, Cahalan asked herself as it was happening, "Am I just bad at my job-- is that why? Is the pressure of it getting to me? Is it a new relationship?" However Cahalan just worsened -- she began to experience seizures, hallucinations, increasingly psychotic behavior as well as catatonia. Her symptoms frightened family members and baffled a series of doctors. After a monthlong medical facility stay and $ 1 million really worth of blood tests and brain scans that proved inconclusive, Cahalan was seen by Dr. Souhel Najjar, who asked her to draw a clock on a notepad.

People:

Susannah Cahalan

Overall Sentiment: -0.179991

Relevance: 0.759534

SentimentQuote
-0.0199215Cahalan asked herself as it was happening, "Am I just bad at my job — is that why? Is the pressure of it getting to me? Is it a new relationship?"
-0.244137Cahalan says that doctors think the illness may account for cases of "demonic possession" ...
Sentiment Stats:
  • Number of Quotes: 2
  • Aggregate Sentiment: -0.2640585
  • Mean: -0.13202925
  • Standard Deviation: 1.7320508075689

Dr. Souhel Najjar

Overall Sentiment: -0.0480274

Relevance: 0.368314

SentimentQuote
0.142852"I drew a circle, and I drew the numbers 1 to 12 all on the right-hand side of the clock, so the left-hand side was blank, completely blank," she tells ...
0.114754"I drew a circle, and I drew the numbers 1 to 12 all on the right-hand side of the clock, so the left-hand side was blank, completely blank," she tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies, "which showed him that I was experiencing left-side spatial neglect and, likely, the right side of my brain responsible for the left field of vision was inflamed."
Sentiment Stats:
  • Number of Quotes: 2
  • Aggregate Sentiment: 0.257606
  • Mean: 0.128803
  • Standard Deviation: 1.7320508075689

Stephen heard

Overall Sentiment: -0.127408

Relevance: 0.341298

Dave Davies

Overall Sentiment: 0.137941

Relevance: 0.294041

Frankenstein

Overall Sentiment: -0.187742

Relevance: 0.287066

Stephen

Overall Sentiment: -0.0349928

Relevance: 0.271797

Key:

  • Aggregate Sentiment is meant to be an indicator of an individual's overall sentiment.
  • The Mean is meant to be an indicator of an individual's average comment sentiment.
  • The Standard Deviation, when there are enough quotes, will indicate an individual's consistency of sentiment (i.e. a Standard Deviation of 0 would mean they were very consistent in their sentiment and 1 would mean they were very inconsistent).

Note that quote stats are likely to be meaningless beyond the aggregate score due to the tiny sample size. However, they are always provided just in case you find something useful there.

Additional Info:

PrintMedia: New York Post

Overall Sentiment: -0.0177573

Relevance: 0.346129

HealthCondition: seizures

Overall Sentiment: -0.198589

Relevance: 0.45581

Disambiguation: DiseaseOrMedicalCondition | CauseOfDeath | Symptom | DiseaseReferences:

HealthCondition: encephalitis

Overall Sentiment: -0.035577

Relevance: 0.333298

Disambiguation: DiseaseOrMedicalCondition | CauseOfDeath | Symptom | DiseaseReferences:

HealthCondition: catatonia

Overall Sentiment: -0.493254

Relevance: 0.31426

HealthCondition: paranoia

Overall Sentiment: -0.742571

Relevance: 0.309064

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