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Thursday, December 26, 2002Dickens does have a place, though, in medical history. There’s a disease, Pickwickian Syndrome, named after The Pickwick Papers: Charles Dickens wrote a vivid description on what later became identified as a stereotypical, severe form of sleep apnea in a character called "Fat Joe" from The Pickwick Papers. "Fat Joe" had such excessive daytime sleepiness that he fell asleep standing up, while in the process of knocking on a door! Thereafter, "Fat Joe" was referred to in clinical descriptions later in the 19th century of other hypersomnolent, obese patients with loud snoring, which came to be called the "Pickwickian Syndrome" in reference to Dickens' novel. Around this time, a case was reported with successful treatment by weight reduction. Later, the term "Pickwickian Syndrome" became supplanted by Obstructive Sleep Apnea, which includes a wider range of less severe cases without the daytime cardiorespiratory impairment of the Pickwickian syndrome. posted by Sydney on 12/26/2002 07:00:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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