Brainstorm: Detective Stories from the World of Neurology

Written by Suzanne O'Sullivan

Narrated by Christine Williams

A leading neurologist recounts some of her most astonishing, challenging cases, which demonstrate how crucial the study of epilepsy has been to our understanding of the brain.

Brainstorm follows the stories of people whose medical diagnoses are so strange even their doctor struggles to know how to solve them. A man who sees cartoon characters running across the room; a girl whose world suddenly seems completely distorted, as though she were 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. Neurologists must puzzle out life-changing diagnoses from the tiniest of clues, the ultimate medical detective work. In this riveting book, Suzanne O’Sullivan takes you with her as she tracks the clues of her patients’ symptoms. It’s a journey that will open your eyes to the unfathomable intricacies of our brains and the infinite variety of human experience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Oct 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781978638631

Suzanne O'Sullivan

Dr Suzanne O’Sullivan has been a consultant in neurology since 2004, first working at The Royal London Hospital and now as a consultant in clinical neurophysiology and neurology at The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, and for a specialist unit based at the Epilepsy Society. She specialises in the investigation of complex epilepsy and also has an active interest in psychogenic disorders. Suzanne’s first book It's All in Your Head, won both the Wellcome Book Prize and the Royal Society of Biology Book Prize and her critically acclaimed Brainstorm was published in 2018

Reviews for Brainstorm

[infjsarah · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I did not find this as entertaining as "It's all in your head". It is all about patients with epilepsy of different kinds and maybe that's a bit too close to home for me. Ok but not the best.

[aadyer · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It was bought for me by my wife, who shares my fascination with neurology and we enjoyed discussing respeatedly. One of the first and most important messages that Dr O'Sullivan brings up is the need to talk to the patient, this is especially true in neurology, where the history, it's subtle nuances, it's apparent digressions and its drive and progression are vital to understanding the underlying disease process.In delineating between primary and secondary generalised seizures, ask in the history where the symptoms first affect the body, if this is generalised, and primary, there won't be an area that is affected followed by tonic clonic seizures, you'll just get a generalised seizure, but in secondary it starts in a small place and then moves outwards. That first anatomical location tells you where in the brain, the seizure originates from. Remember temporal lobe epilepsy often affects fears, emotions, and behaviour. Frontal one seizures affect planning and involuntary motor movements. EEG's are a little like 24 hour tapes at times, especially for trying to find temporal lobe hallucinations. Absence seizures are often caused by frontal and parietal involvement but not always. I quite enjoyed reviewing my Neuroanatomy again. It was helpful in looking at this, for when the author talked about possible surgical management. There was a good section on pseudo seizures and how they manifest. Pseudo seizures are still very interesting but patients don't always react well to the thought that this has an almost psychosomatic element to it. The limitations of EEG, in particular, with the limited, partial seizures, was very interesting. I'd naively thought that they were pretty definitive, but it's only really helpful for being over th place where the generalised siz urge starts. Temporal lobe epilepsy provides some of the more memorable, slightly more active, physical effects with convulsions. He discussion about SUDEP was interesting. I had net heard of the term and its presumed that the convulsions effects in the heart leads to fatal arrhythmia. It's in young people, often and especially those with multiple seizures, those with seizures happening at night and those being investigated for possible surgery. Clearly, high risk patients anyway. An autopsy shows little. I was shocked to read about post ictal psychosis. It's rare but does happen and is a consequence of the brain GABA receptors being affected by the electrical discharge. It needs so have the convulsions controlled and if this isn't possible then use the same anti psychotic drugs as you would under other circumstances A section on post head injury seizures was fairly unremarkable for me, but some of he figures quoted did surprise me. I wasn't aware that a serious head injury, with fracturing, haemorrhage, or significant amnesia, has a 60% chance of developing seizures. Frontal lobe disinhibition, in this context, caused by head injury, is a debilitating and functionally crippling process. It's important to remind oneself of this. The deterioration in ADLS as a consequence is saddening for relatives, and life changing, for the patient. Status epilepticus doesn't always end up in ITU, it can also persist, without adequate recovery between sisters. It's very significant and persistence of seizures, leads to long term memory and cognitive damage. There was a brief section on the new research into NMDA Receptors and how they get affected by ovarian tumours which I found interesting and I think will be part of my career for time to come.