Toronto edition headline: Raves create perfect setting for seizures, doctors say
Publication title: National Post
Pages: A9 Section: News
Publication date: Apr 4, 2000
ProQuest document ID: 329668298
Copyright: (Copyright National Post 2000)
Author: Humphreys, Adrian
Abstract:
"It is the perfect situation for something like this to happen. You have all of these kids watching flashing lights who are sleep deprived and high and they are all pushing the envelope anyways. It is a potentially dangerous situation," said Dr. Barry Sinclair, director of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Program at the University of Alberta.
"We had a mad, crazy, light show and when it went into a certain pattern at 6:50 a.m., it triggered seizures in these kids," said Keith Rubulick, an organizer of Ascension 2000, the largest dance party to be held in Edmonton.
"Stimulation by lights has in the past, in some susceptible individuals, caused seizures. It is possible that the seizure threshold was lowered by the drug."
Full text:
Epilepsy researchers are concerned by reports of six teenagers simultaneously dropping into convulsions when the flashing lights at an Edmonton rave went into overdrive on the weekend, fearing that raves can be added to a growing list of events that might spark seizures.
"It is the perfect situation for something like this to happen. You have all of these kids watching flashing lights who are sleep deprived and high and they are all pushing the envelope anyways. It is a potentially dangerous situation," said Dr. Barry Sinclair, director of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Program at the University of Alberta.
After a night of dancing to pulsing music by about five thousand young people at the monster rave on Sunday, it seemed to be the wildly flashing lights that affected six teenagers, a rave organizer said.
"We had a mad, crazy, light show and when it went into a certain pattern at 6:50 a.m., it triggered seizures in these kids," said Keith Rubulick, an organizer of Ascension 2000, the largest dance party to be held in Edmonton.
Edmonton police confirmed that the strobe light pattern seemed to be a contributing factor, along with the popular rave drug ecstasy, an amphetamine that provokes both euphoric and hallucinatory effects.
The exact cause of the seizures is not known, but Dr. Gregg Schirer, an emergency room physician at the Royal Alexandra hospital where five of the victims were taken, points his finger more at drugs than lights.
"It is drug related. There are several neurological phenomenon associated with this drug. Seizures are a known phenomenon associated with recreational use of ecstasy," said Dr. Schirer.
"Stimulation by lights has in the past, in some susceptible individuals, caused seizures. It is possible that the seizure threshold was lowered by the drug."
The strobe light effect triggering epileptic seizures in some people has been blamed for inducing other mass seizures -- most famously in 1997 when more than 600 children in Japan were taken to hospital after watching a flashing, four-second scene of exploding missiles in an episode of the cartoon Pokemon.
The effect is triggered when a certain frequency of flashing light or colour -- usually about 15 cycles per cycles per second -- triggers an abnormal chemical response in the brain, causing brain cells to fire more rapidly, causing blackouts or convulsions.
In 1993, three British viewers watching a cartoon called Pot Noodles experienced convulsions. In 1990, Dr. Sinclair reported cases of "Nintendo epilepsy" caused in children playing a particular version of the video game Super Mario Bros.
It is not only flashing light that has been linked to seizures. There is even one documented case of an American woman sent into seizures when hearing the voice of Entertainment Tonight's host Mary Hart.
Each generation seems to face its own seizure-causing event, said Dr. McIntyre Burnham, director of the Bloorview Epilepsy Research Program in Toronto.
In the 1960s, theatrical presentations started using strobe effects, causing some in the audience to convulse and in 1970s reports came in of epileptic seizures sparked by the disco lights.
"It goes back thousands of years -- it is said the people who were trading in slaves had them look at a spinning potter's wheel to see if it would activate a seizure. It has been known for a long time that some people are sensitive to flashes of light," said Dr. Frederick Andermann, director of Epilepsy Service at Montreal Neurological Hospital and Institute.
Dr. Andermann said that flashing lights, sleep deprivation, and hyperventilation are three major triggers of seizures. Rave participants might be exposed to all of these as well as ecstasy and other drugs.
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