Porphyria Television and Other Media

 

The Balancing Act, Behind the Mystery: Acute Hepatic Porphyria on Lifetime TV with Nicole Castellano & Dr. Angelika Erwin

 

Porphyria Awareness Week 2023 News Story with Nicole Castellano on Suncoast News Network in Sarasota, spreading porphyria awareness

 

Inspiring Video for Porphyria Awareness Week 2023 by Andrew McManamon.

 

Arkansas Woman Shares Story After Popular Netflix Show Brings awareness to Rare Disease
July 18, 2023

Books and Papers

  • “On Porphyria and the Aetiology of Werewolves” by L. Illis', 1963, paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine January 1964
  •  The Porphyrias by Geoffrey Dean, 1971
  • Vampires by Nancy Garden, 1973
  • "Porphyria, Vampires, and Werewolves: The Aetiology of European Metamorphosis Legends", paper by David Dolphin for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1985
  • Porphyrins and Porphyria by Y. Nordman, 1986
  • American Vampires: Fans, Victims, Practitioners by Norine Dresser, 1989
  • Porphyria by Tammy Evans, 1997
  • Purple Secret: Genes, 'Madness' and the Royal Houses of Europe by John C. G. Rohl, 1999
  • Porphyria, A Lyon’s Share of Trouble by Desiree Lyon Howe, 2004
  • Royal Maladies: Inherited diseases in the royal houses of Europe by Alan Rushton, 2008
  • Ultimate Comics Avengers 3 #1, comic by Mark Millar, October 2010
  • "Rare genetic disorder doesn't slow down boys," two brothers in a small Texas town deal with Erythropoietic Protoporphyria (EPP) from the Vernon Daily Record April 9, 2010. (1, 2, 3)

 

Digital Publications

 

Magazines and Blogs

Pain News Network

Parade Magazine

  • Desiree Lyon Howe Story
  • Porphyria, Rare Disease Feature

National Geographic

New York Time Magazine & Blog

 

Movies

  • The King’s Speech (2010)
  • The Madness of King George (1994) & (2005) - film based on the 1991 Alan Bennett play “The Madness of George III”
  • Porphyria (2010)
  • Surya Vs Surya

 

News Reports

ABC.com

ABC News Specials

  • Medical Mysteries Series, Episode 2
  • Interview with Desiree Lyon
  • "The Mystery Illness" of Congenital Erythropoietic Protoporphyria (CEP) on Dr. Dean Edell's Medical Journal, ABC-TV 1986. (on genebennett.net)

ABC Nightline

ABC Prime Time

  • CEP Segment - Kasey Knauf
  • Royal Mystery Unraveled,  August 15, 2012

Anderson Cooper 360

  • CEP

BBC news

CNN

CNN iReport  

Colin MeEwen with Dr. Sanjay Hapani

Dr. Drew

  • Mystery Illness - December 2012

Dr. Oz

  • EPP Patient - Craig Leppert

Fox News

  • Interview with Desiree Lyon
  • Vampires, A Medical Myth, November 2009
  • King George, Madness or Arsenic, July 2005
  • EPP with Dr. Herbert Bonkovsky July, 2015

Good Morning America

NBC Evening News

  • NBC Evening News, Thur. May 31 2005
  • Dr. Bruce Spielgaman WBZ, August 2005
  • Sunlight Allergy July, 2015

NBCnews.com

Sanjay Gupta

USA Today

 

Television Shows

Castle

  • Vampire Weekend: Season 2, Episode 6

Chicago Med

  • Inheritance: Season 1, April 16, 2016

CSI Las Vegas

  • Justice Served: Season 1, Episode 21
  • Blood Moon:  Season 11, Episode 3

Dateline NBC

Diagnose Me

  • Ballerina Interrupted Season 1, Episode 4, May 8, 2015

Doc Martin

  • Uneasy Lies the Head: Season 4, Episode 2

Gray’s Anatomy

  • Time Warp: Season 6, Episode 15

Harrow

  • They Condemn What They Do Not understand: Season 3 episode 2

Histories Mysteries

House

  • The Socratic Method: Season 1, Episode 6
  • Honeymoon: Season 1, Episode 22
  • Fools for Love: Season 3, Episode 5 (mentions porphyria)
  • Finding Judas: Season 3, Episode 9
  • Don’t Ever Change: Season 4, Episode 12 (mentions porphyria)
  • Guardian Angels: Season 4, Episode 4 (mentions porphyria)
  • Whatever it Takes: Season 4, Episode 6 (mentions porphyria)
  • The Itch: Season 5, Episode 7
  • Emancipation: Season 5, Episode 8 (mentions porphyria)
  • Let Them Eat Cake: Season 5, Episode 10
  • Carrot or Stick: Season 7, Episode 10
  • You Must Remember This: Season 7, Episode 12
  • Bombshells: Season 7, Episode 15
  • Charity Case: Season 8, Episode 3
  • Post Mortem: Season 8, Episode 20

Learning Channel

  • Porphyria, Another Myth in the Making

LIFETIME Network

Midsomer Murders  

  • Masterclass: Season 13, Episode 5  

Montel Williams

  • Porphyria with Lauren Warren
  • Rare Diseases with the Leppert Family

Mystery Diagnosis

  • The Sickest Patient in the Hospital and Terrifying Tremors: Season 5
  • The Boy Who Kept Swelling: Season 6 Episode 6

Mystery ER

  • Seeping Through the Cracks/Purple Haze: Season 1, Episode 3

Medical Mysteries

  • George III - Mad or Misunderstood, BBC, July 14, 2012

Saving Hope:

  • The Great Randall: Season 1, Episode 6

Secret History

  • Purple Secret in Search of Royal Madness: Season 6, Episode 6

Scrubs

  • My Ocardial Infarction: Season 4, Episode 13
  • Kelso’s Last Stand: Season7, Episode 9
  • My Dumb Luck: Season 9, Episode 7
  • Outta here like Vladimir: Season 8, Episode 4

Telemundo

The Night Shift

  • Parenthood: Season 2 Episode 9

The Resident

  • The Flea: Season 3, Episode 14

The Rookie: Feds

  • Out for Blood: Season 1, Episode 12

Travel Channel

  • Romania Documentary

Two of Me, Living with Acute Porphyria

X Files

  • “3”: Season 2, Episode 7
  • Bad Blood: Season 5, Episode 12

 

Over 100 local television stations have produced stories on individual patients.  There have also been a large number of articles on patients in local newspapers.