Suzanne O'Sullivan

"Most of us accept the way our heart flutters when we set eyes on the one we secretly admire, or the sweat on our brow as we start the presentation we do not want to give. But few of us are fully aware of how dramatic our body's reactions to emotions can sometimes be. Take Pauline, who first became ill when she was fifteen. What seemed at first to be a urinary infection became joint pain, then food intolerances, then life-threatening appendicitis. And then one day, after a routine operation, Pauline lost all the strength in her legs. Shortly after that her convulsions started. But Pauline's tests are normal; her symptoms seem to have no physical cause whatsoever. Pauline may be an extreme case, but she is by no means alone. As many as a third of men and women visiting their GP have symptoms that are medically unexplained. In most, an emotional root is suspected and yet, when it comes to a diagnosis, this is the very last thing we want to hear, and the last thing doctors want to say. In It's All in Your Head consultant neurologist Dr Suzanne O'Sullivan takes us on a journey through the very real world of psychosomatic illness. Meeting her patients, she encourages us to

True Stories of Imaginary Illness

It's All in Your Head

And Other Stories of Mystery Illness

The Sleeping Beauties

From the Wellcome Prize-winning author of It's All in Your HeadBrainstormexamines the stories of people whose symptoms are so strange even their doctor struggles to know how to solve them. A man who sees cartoon characters running across the room; a teenager who one day arrives home with inexplicably torn clothes; a girl whose world turns all Alice in Wonderland; another who transforms into a ragdoll whenever she even thinksabout moving. The brain is the most complex structure in the universe, and neurologists must puzzle out life-changing diagnoses from the tiniest of clues - it?s the ultimate in medical detective work. In this riveting book, one of the UK?s leading neurologists takes you with her as she follows the trail of her patients? symptoms- feelings of dej vu lead us to a damaged hippocampus; spitting and fidgeting to the right temporal lobe; fear of movement to a brain tumour; a missed heart beat to the limbic system.It?s a journey that will open your eyes to the unfathomable intricacies of the brain, and the infinite variety of human capacity and experience.Praise for It's All in Your Head'As addictive as a great box set, makes you rethink some of your closest relationships and wonder about some of the people you know best; and above all, like all truly great books, it is about love and compassion? Satnam Sanghera, The Times'Remarkable... It should be on the reading list of every medical student? P.D. Smith, Guardian'An extraordinary book... an important one too? Kathryn Hughes, Mail on Sunday'Read this book? British Medical Journal

Brainstorm

El cerebro convulso : relatos detectivescos de una neuróloga

It is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease, than what sort of disease a patient has. William Osler Suzanne O'Sullivan is a neurologist, who looks after people with brain diseases. She is also fascinated by psychosomatic disorders - seizures, paralysis, blindness - disabilities that originate more in the mind than in the structure of the brain. Hysteria by another name. Medical conditions that people find so shameful that they often exist below the radar. Or they are given labels that make them more acceptable or more difficult to spot. Some believe that hysteria is rare. Any neurologist will tell you it isn’t. They see a form of it in every clinic, on every working day. For those like O'Sullivan, who are drawn to it, sightings are not restricted to the clinic. It is everywhere. And this is how she learned about Andrei, and the 424 other children in Sweden like him, children who have fallen into a state of apathy, a waking coma, some for months, some for years. But why? The Sleeping Beauties is the story of these children in Sweden but it is also an exploration of different aspects of psychosomatic disorders, mass hysteria, culture bound syndromes and the idioms of distress. Culture bound syndromes are a set of symptoms that exist only within a particular society. Windigo is a condition that affects Native Americans. It manifests as a fear that the sufferer has turned into a cannibal. Koro, an intense anxiety that the penis will recede into the body, is seen almost exclusively in Malaysia. Susto is prevalent in Latinos who live in the States. Triggered by traumatic events the symptoms include anorexia, nervousness, insomnia and diarrhea. There are over two hundred culture bound syndromes. They are listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as rare psychiatric conditions. However within the societies in which they exist they are more likely to be regarded as folk illnesses. They are culturally acceptable ways to express distress. Two questions arise. Who defines psychiatric illness and what shapes the manner in which distress is communicated within a society? Reminiscent of the work of Oliver Sacks, Stephen Grosz and Henry Marsh, this is a remarkable scientific investigation with a very human face.

and other stories of the social life of illness

E doar in capul tau

In Sweden, hundreds of refugee children fall into a state that resembles sleep for months or years at a time. In Le Roy, a town in upstate New York, teenage girls develop involuntary twitches and seizures that spread like a conta­gion. In the U.S. Embassy in Cuba, employees experience headaches and memory loss after hearing strange noises during the night. These are only a few of the many sus­pected culture-bound psychosomatic syndromes—specific sets of symptoms that exist in a particular culture or environment—that affect people throughout the world. In The Sleeping Beauties, Dr. Suzanne O’Sullivan—an award-winning Irish neurologist—investigates psychosomatic disorders, traveling the world to visit communi­ties suffering from these so-called mystery illnesses. From a derelict post-Soviet mining town in Kazakhstan to the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua to the heart of the María Mountains in Colombia, O’Sullivan records the remark­able stories of syndromes related to her by people from all walks of life. Riveting and often distressing, these case studies are recounted with compassion and humanity. In examining the complexity of psychogenic illness, O’Sullivan has written a book of both fascination and se­rious concern as these syndromes continue to proliferate around the globe.

Histórias verdadeiras sobre doenças imaginárias Nosso corpo responde instintivamente às emoções vigentes em nosso cérebro. O frio na barriga, por exemplo, é uma reação corporal à ansiedade, ninguém duvida disso. Alguns sintomas físicos, contudo, não têm motivo aparente. A partir do relato das dificuldades enfrentadas pelos pacientes que tratou a Dra. Suzanna O'Sullivan confirma que, apesar da manifestação ostensiva, algumas doenças são impossíveis de ser detectadas pelos diagnósticos clínicos. Ao expor casos reais de transtornos psicossomáticos, a autora demonstra os efeitos concretos de patologias psicogênicas. A leitura deste livro não apenas promove uma reflexão profunda sobre saúde psíquica, mas também revela nossa dificuldade em identificar a relação íntima entre corpo e mente.

Histórias verdadeiras sobre doenças imaginárias

Isso é coisa da sua cabeça

'I loved it. She is in my view the best science writer around - a true descendant of Oliver Sacks' Sathnam Sanghera, author of The Boy with the Topknot The brain is the most complex structure in the universe. In Brainstorm the Wellcome Prize-winning author of It’s All in Your Head uncovers the most eye-opening symptoms medicine has to offer. ‘Powerfully life-affirming... Brainstorm is testament to O'Sullivan's unshowy clarity of thought and her continued marvelling at the mysteries of the brain’ Guardian Brainstorm examines the stories of people whose symptoms are so strange even their doctor struggles to know how to solve them. A man who sees cartoon characters running across the room; a teenager who one day arrives home with inexplicably torn clothes; a girl whose world turns all Alice in Wonderland; another who transforms into a ragdoll whenever she even thinks about moving. The brain is the most complex structure in the universe, and neurologists must puzzle out life-changing diagnoses from the tiniest of clues – it’s the ultimate in medical detective work. In this riveting book, one of the UK’s leading neurologists takes you with her as she follows the trail of her patients’ symptoms: feelings of déjà vu lead us to a damaged hippocampus; spitting and fidgeting to the right temporal lobe; fear of movement to a brain tumour; a missed heart beat to the limbic system. It’s a journey that will open your eyes to the unfathomable intricacies of the brain, and the infinite variety of human capacity and experience.

Suzanne O'Sullivan

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