This paragraph from The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Ann Fadiman (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997; ISBN 0 374 52564 1) describes the drugs taken by Lia Lee, a Hmong child with severe epilepsy. Her parents came from the mountains of Laos to California, and Fadiman's book describes the mutual incomprehension of the healthcare workers in California and Lia's family. For more information on the book read Editor's Choice.

By the time she was four and a half, Lia's parents had been told to give her, at various times, Tylenol, ampicillin, amoxicillin, Dilantin, phenobarbital, erythromycin, Ceclor, Tegretol, Benadryl, Pediazole, Vi-Daylin Multivitamins with Iron, Alupent, Depakene, and Valium. Because these …