The Case of the Frozen Addicts

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How the Solution of a Medical MysteryRevolutionized the Understanding of Parkinsons Disease. In the summer of 1982, hospital emergency rooms in the San Francisco Bay Area were suddenly confronted with mysteriously frozen patients young men and women who, though conscious, could neither move nor speak. Doctors were baffled, until neurologist J. William Langston, recognizing the symptoms of advanced Parkinsons disease, administered L-dopa the only known effective treatment and unfroze his patient. Dr. Langston determined that this patient and five others had all used the same tainted batch of synthetic heroin, inadvertently laced