Leonard Lowe, starring Robert De Niro, is one the main characters in the movie Awakenings.
Leonard Lowe was infected with encephalitis lethargica when he was eleven years old, in 1921. His conditions worsened with time and he started having tremors and losing his capacity to move. As his sickness progressed, he was no longer able to spend time with his friends, for fear of spreading the disease or finding himself helpless in case he had an attack.
While Dr. Sayer begins working in a medical center in The Bronx in 1969, Leonard Lowe is a patient there and is constantly visited by his mother. Dr. Sayer in his attempts to improve his patients health, decides to administer a drug called L-Dopa, which facilitates the access of dopamine in the brain (Dr. Sayer believed that his patients suffered a type of Parkinson's disease, which is due to a lack of dopamine in the brain). Dopamine itself cannot cross the blood-brain barrier, however L-dopa can.
Leonard Lowe is the first patient in receiving the drug. The first doses of the treatment do not work, but Dr. Sayer persists and after a time, Leonard awakens from his catatonic state and his mother sees him fully conscious for the first time since he was a child. Leonard lives an apparent normal life while he is in the treatment. He enjoys going out, writing, and practicing several different activities. Lowe even shows interest in women, especially the daughter of a patient in the same hospital.
Unfortunately, it is not long before Leonard begins to experience side effects of L-Dopa administration. He begins to experience convulsions, paranoia, and psychotic behavior. His body also begins to build a tolerance for it, so that his Parkinsonian symptoms begin to return. These would turn out to be some of the side effects that the drug has. After some time of suffering with these symptoms, he returns completely to his catatonic state again.
The following are small video clips from the movie since Lowe recovers or "awakens" until he goes back to his catatonic state again.
Leonard Lowe was infected with encephalitis lethargica when he was eleven years old, in 1921. His conditions worsened with time and he started having tremors and losing his capacity to move. As his sickness progressed, he was no longer able to spend time with his friends, for fear of spreading the disease or finding himself helpless in case he had an attack.
While Dr. Sayer begins working in a medical center in The Bronx in 1969, Leonard Lowe is a patient there and is constantly visited by his mother. Dr. Sayer in his attempts to improve his patients health, decides to administer a drug called L-Dopa, which facilitates the access of dopamine in the brain (Dr. Sayer believed that his patients suffered a type of Parkinson's disease, which is due to a lack of dopamine in the brain). Dopamine itself cannot cross the blood-brain barrier, however L-dopa can.
Leonard Lowe is the first patient in receiving the drug. The first doses of the treatment do not work, but Dr. Sayer persists and after a time, Leonard awakens from his catatonic state and his mother sees him fully conscious for the first time since he was a child. Leonard lives an apparent normal life while he is in the treatment. He enjoys going out, writing, and practicing several different activities. Lowe even shows interest in women, especially the daughter of a patient in the same hospital.
Unfortunately, it is not long before Leonard begins to experience side effects of L-Dopa administration. He begins to experience convulsions, paranoia, and psychotic behavior. His body also begins to build a tolerance for it, so that his Parkinsonian symptoms begin to return. These would turn out to be some of the side effects that the drug has. After some time of suffering with these symptoms, he returns completely to his catatonic state again.
The following are small video clips from the movie since Lowe recovers or "awakens" until he goes back to his catatonic state again.