[Photo: © 2009 FOX Broadcasting]

Episode 6.05 – Instant Karma
Air Date: October 12, 2009

On last week’s episode of House, the father thought it was the fact that he had been so fortunate in his business decisions that had caused his son to be dying. So he gave up all of his wealth because he believed it would save his son. Somehow, soon after he did it, House figured out how to save the son.

These were the diseases that the team touched on in the episode, but I added a link for karma. Most Westerners are not all that familiar with the concept of karma. We have a rather simplistic understanding of it. I thought I’d include the link, in case you wanted to find out more about the origins of karma.

• Hirschsprung disease
• Brain tumors
• Polyarteritis nodosa
• Degos disease
• Antiphospholipid syndrome
• Karma on Wikipedia.com

[Photo: © 2009 FOX Broadcasting]

Episode 6.04 – The Tyrant
Air Date: October 5, 2009

This episode of House was less about the diagnosis and more about the human drama of the Tyrant. He was a ruthless dictator in an African country who had committed genocide and other atrocities. I’m not totally sure they decided exactly what his ailment was, because he died before they got it completely tracked down.

I know that the last two links are not diagnoses, but are links to two actual countries that have had similar genocide and atrocities committed by dictators. If you aren’t aware of those sad/tragic moments in history (and the present), you might want to check them out too.

• Dioxin
• Lassa Fever
• Lymphoma
• Scleroderma
• Genocide in Darfur
• Rwanda genocide facts

[Photo: © 2009 FOX Broadcasting]

Episode 6.03 – Epic Fail
Air Date: September 28, 2009

This is a link to the medical research that was done to write this episode of House. All of these diseases and problems were addressed during the various attempts to diagnose the patient. They really do their homework to get everything to be as accurate as possible for the show.

Since this is the episode where House becomes obsessed with cooking, I wish they had also given us some of those amazing recipes!

• Complex regional pain syndrome
• Mercury exposure
• Cocaine facts
• Psittacosis
• Brain tumor
• Thrombocytosis
• Amyloidosis
• Fabry disease

[Photo: © 2009 FOX Broadcasting]

Episode 6.01/6.02 – Broken
Air Date: September 21, 2009

FOX has a wonderful page on the House site that gives us links to the various places where we can find out more about the diseases and disorders talked about on the show. House is very helpful in spreading information about lesser-known illnesses. It can help those with the disorders to know more about it at times and that helps to also raise awareness for the disease.

I used to work with a guy whose daughter has Celiac Disease and his family was very happy that an episode of House helped to raise awareness for the disease and its need for money for research.

Because of Hugh Laurie’s history with depression, the show is a huge advocate of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness), so it’s not surprise that it has dealt on several occasions with mental health issues. This episode was very specific to the needs of the mentally ill. So I decided to share the links with you about the various diagnoses from the show, in case it can help you or someone you know.

Here are some of the places that you can find out more about these disorders and diseases that were touched on in the season premiere of this season of House:

• Prescription drug abuse
• Drug abuse treatment
• Suicide prevention
• Eating disorders
• National Alliance on Mental Illness