Hematin and heme arginate is the treatment of choice during an acute attack. Heme is not a curative treatment, but can shorten attacks and reduce the intensity of an attack. Side-effects are rare but can be serious. Pain is extremely severe and almost always requires the use of opiates to reduce it to tolerable levels. Pain should be treated as early as medically possible due to its severity. Nausea can be severe; it may respond to phenothiazine drugs but is sometimes intractable. Hot water baths or showers may lessen nausea temporarily, but can present a risk of burns or falls.Seizures often accompany this disease. Most seizure medications exacerbate this condition due to their induction of cytochrome P450. Treatment can be problematic: Barbiturates and primidone must be avoided as they commonly precipitate symptoms. Some benzodiazepines are safe, and, when used in conjunction with newer anti-seizure medications such as gabapentin, offer a possible regimen for seizure control. Society
One of the many hypothesized diagnoses of the artist Vincent van Gogh is that he and his siblings, in particular his brother Theo, had AIP and syphilis. Another theorized case was King George III of the United Kingdom who even had a medallion struck to commemorate his "curing". His descendant Prince William of Gloucester was reliably diagnosed with variegate porphyria in 1968. It is probable that the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau had porphyria. It has even been suggested that Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, more commonly known by his surname Dracula, had porphyria. References


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Because methylmercury is a teratogen, the mercury poisoning of those residing by the bay resulted in neurological defects in the offspring. Infants exposed to mercury poisoning in utero showed predispositions to cerebral palsy, ataxia, inhibited psychomotor development, and intellectual disability.Landfill sites have been shown to have adverse effects on fetal development. Extensive research has shown that landfills have several negative effects on babies born to mothers living near landfill sites: low birth weight, birth defects, spontaneous abortion, and fetal and infant mortality. Studies done around the Love Canal site near Niagara Falls and the Lipari Landfill in New Jersey have shown a higher proportion of low birth-weight babies than communities farther away from landfills. A study done in California showed a positive correlation between time and quantity of dumping and low birth weights and neonatal deaths. A study in the United Kingdom showed a correlation between pregnant women living near landfill sites and an increased risk of congenital disorders, such as neural tube defects, hypospadias, epispadia, and abdominal wall defects, such as gastroschisis and exomphalos. A study conducted on a Welsh community also showed an increased incidence of gastroschisis. Another study on 21 European hazardous-waste sites showed that those living within 3 km had an increased risk of giving birth to infants with birth defects and that as distance from the land increased, the risk decreased. These birth defects included neural tube defects, malformations of the cardiac septa, anomalies of arteries and veins, and chromosomal anomalies.