Boy, Interrupted

http://discovermagazine.com/2007/nov/boy-interrupted

At the age of 3, Cody Cawood seemed to be developing like any other child with cerebral palsy but in October 2000 something went wrong. One night, his mother found him lying in his own vomit. A local pediatrician told her there was nothing to worry about. Cody's condition worsened very quickly and it became quite apparent that Mrs. Cawood had plenty to worry about. Cody's communication regressed into small single words and finally into rageful tantrums of violence. Intitial EEG's and MRI's showed nothing out of the ordinary. Numerous doctors prescribed a multitude of medications, none of which worked. Finally, in September 2001, epileptologist Kore Liow, monitored Cody for 5 days with a video EEG and diagnosed him with Landau-Kleffner syndrome (LKS).
The disorder is characterized by abnormal electrical brain waves, nocturnal epileptic seizures, and sometimes hypersensitivity and aggression and most often occurs in children ages 3 to 7, affecting the child's ability to use and understand language. But now that the diagnosis had been given, what could be done for Cody and others with LKS? Unfortunately, 50 years after this disorder was discovered, not much is known about how to treat LKS. "I'm very discouraged- we haven't learned much at all," says Dr. William Landau, part of the syndrome's namesake due to his research in the field, "We know nothing about cause yet."
Similar to other epileptic disorders, children diagnosed with LKS will often resume normal brain activity around age 15, when the brain cells are nearing maturity. One patient, diagnosed with LKS at age 5, says that she lived a "relatively normal life". She is now 52 and runs a ranch in Montana. Some more timely treatments include steroids, intravenous immunoglobulin therapy, surgery, and most common and widely accepted, aggressive speech and language treatment.
Seven years after the onset LKS, Cody still shows no progress. His family is planning to put him in an adult handicapped home after he finishes school when he will be 21 years old.

This article was mostly discouraging and sad. Doctors seem to know little or nothing about what causes LKS and are basically stabbing into the dark about how to treat it. The story of Cody included in the article offered little scientific knowledge, but was very sad and made you sympathize with kids with LKS and their families. Much more research needs to be done before any universal treatment can be proposed.