Encephalitis lethargica: the mysterious disease that inspired Awakenings is finally starting to give up some clues

By Jonathan Rogers, Wellcome Trust Clinical Fellow in Psychiatry, UCL

“People have forgotten what life is all about,” Robert De Niro’s character says in the film Awakenings after being revived from the shut-down state he had been in for 30 years. “They’ve forgotten what it is to be alive.”

Based on a true story told by Dr Oliver Sacks, Awakenings focuses with exquisite detail on the experiences of a few extraordinary people affected by a disease known as encephalitis…

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