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Press Release

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 PM ET, February 14, 2010

Drama or Reality TV: Do Medical Shows Depict Proper First Aid for Seizures?

ST. PAUL, Minn. -

Watching TV medical shows might not be the best way to learn what to do when someone has a seizure. Researchers screened the most popular medical dramas and found that doctors and nurses on the shows responded inappropriately to seizures almost half the time, according to a study released today that will be presented at the 62nd Annual Meeting in Toronto April 10 to April 17, 2010. 鈥淭elevision dramas are a potentially powerful method of educating the public about first aid and seizures,鈥 said study author Andrew Moeller, with Dalhousie University, Halifax, in Nova Scotia, Canada. 鈥淥ur results, showing that television shows inaccurately showed seizure management half the time, are a call to action. People with epilepsy should lobby the television industry to adhere to guidelines for first aid management of seizures.鈥 Moeller worked alongside R. Mark Sadler, MD, also with Dalhousie University for the research. For the study, researchers screened all episodes of the highest-rated US medical dramas: 鈥淕rey鈥檚 Anatomy,鈥 鈥淗ouse, M.D.,鈥 and 鈥淧rivate Practice鈥 and the last five seasons of 鈥淓R鈥 for seizures. In the 327 episodes, 59 seizures occurred. Fifty-one seizures took place in a hospital. Nearly all first aid was performed by 鈥渘urses鈥 or 鈥渄octors.鈥 Guidelines on seizure management were used to determine whether the seizure was handled properly. The study found that inappropriate practices, including holding the person down, trying to stop involuntary movements or putting something in the person鈥檚 mouth, occurred in 25 cases, nearly 46 percent of the time. First aid management was shown appropriately in 17 seizures, or about 29 percent of the time. Appropriateness of first aid could not be determined in 15 incidents of seizures, or 25 percent.

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