"The Socratic Method" is the sixth episode of the first season of House

House (TV series)

House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...

, which premiered on the Fox

Fox Broadcasting Company

Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

 network on December 21, 2004. The title refers to the Socratic method

Socratic method

The Socratic method , named after the classical Greek philosopher Socrates, is a form of inquiry and debate between individuals with opposing viewpoints based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas...

, credited to Socrates

Socrates

Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...

. When a schizophrenic mother develops a deep-vein thrombosis while applying for welfare, a strange phone call causes House to question her sanity once again.

Plot

Lucille Palmeiro, a mother suffering from schizophrenia

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...

, feels a sharp pain in her leg, a result of a blood clot

Thrombus

A thrombus , or blood clot, is the final product of the blood coagulation step in hemostasis. It is achieved via the aggregation of platelets that form a platelet plug, and the activation of the humoral coagulation system...

. The clot moves to Lucille's lung and she has a pulmonary embolism

Pulmonary embolism

Pulmonary embolism is a blockage of the main artery of the lung or one of its branches by a substance that has travelled from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream . Usually this is due to embolism of a thrombus from the deep veins in the legs, a process termed venous thromboembolism...

 from the clot (Deep vein thrombosis

Deep vein thrombosis

Deep vein thrombosis is the formation of a blood clot in a deep vein. Deep vein thrombosis commonly affects the leg veins or the deep veins of the pelvis. Occasionally the veins of the arm are affected...

).

At night in the hospital, Lucille begins to vomit blood

Hematemesis

Hematemesis or haematemesis is the vomiting of blood. The source is generally the upper gastrointestinal tract. Patients can easily confuse it with hemoptysis , although the latter is more common.-Signs:...

. House wonders if a Vitamin K

Vitamin K

Vitamin K is a group of structurally similar, fat soluble vitamins that are needed for the posttranslational modification of certain proteins required for blood coagulation and in metabolic pathways in bone and other tissue. They are 2-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinone derivatives...

 deficiency explains the delay between the blood test and the vomiting. Foreman and Chase check the patient's home for unused Ampicillin

Ampicillin

Ampicillin is a beta-lactam antibiotic that has been used extensively to treat bacterial infections since 1961. Until the introduction of ampicillin by the British company Beecham, penicillin therapies had only been effective against Gram-positive organisms such as staphylococci and streptococci...

, which was prescribed earlier in the year for a sore throat. Foreman finds a strongbox filled with medicine, including an untouched bottle of Ampicillin and a freezer full of microwave burgers. House's theory about Vitamin K is becoming stronger.

Chase and Cameron ultrasound

Ultrasound

Ultrasound is cyclic sound pressure with a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing. Ultrasound is thus not separated from "normal" sound based on differences in physical properties, only the fact that humans cannot hear it. Although this limit varies from person to person, it is...

 Lucille's liver and find cirrhosis

Cirrhosis

Cirrhosis is a consequence of chronic liver disease characterized by replacement of liver tissue by fibrosis, scar tissue and regenerative nodules , leading to loss of liver function...

 and a cancerous tumor

Cancer

Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

. To circumvent surgical guidelines, House injects ethanol

Ethanol

Ethanol, also called ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid. It is a psychoactive drug and one of the oldest recreational drugs. Best known as the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, it is also used in thermometers, as a...

 into the tumor to temporarily shrink it. (N.B. the structure that is seen in ultrasound pictures described as a tumor and into which ethanol is injected is actually the right kidney.) After the surgery, Social Services

Social work

Social Work is a professional and academic discipline that seeks to improve the quality of life and wellbeing of an individual, group, or community by intervening through research, policy, community organizing, direct practice, and teaching on behalf of those afflicted with poverty or any real or...

 comes to the hospital to take Lucille's son, Luke. House accuses her of calling Social Services for her son and believes that her decision is inconsistent with her schizophrenia and thinks that perhaps the drugs she was taking for schizophrenia are actually responsible for some of her psychotic symptoms as she seems saner off the drugs than on them.

Late that night, House has a revelation. Wilson's disease

Wilson's disease

Wilson's disease or hepatolenticular degeneration is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder in which copper accumulates in tissues; this manifests as neurological or psychiatric symptoms and liver disease...

 is marked by high copper levels in the body, and explains the cirrhosis. Seeing that Lucille canceled an eye exam last year, they give her a quick test. The copper-colored rings

Kayser-Fleischer ring

Kayser-Fleischer rings are dark rings that appear to encircle the iris of the eye. They are due to copper deposition as a result of particular liver diseases. They are named after Dr Bernhard Kayser and Dr Bruno Fleischer, the German doctors who first described them in 1902 and 1903...

 around her corneas confirm the diagnosis. Within a few days, a healthy Lucille is happily reunited with Luke. House lies to spare the son from finding out his mother gave him up and claims that he had Cuddy call Social Services as only House was aware that Luke was only 15 despite claiming to be 18.

Throughout the episode, her son, and later House, reads "Her Praise" by William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...

 to Lucille, ending with her reading the poem after she regains full mental capacity.

External links

• "The Socratic Method" at Fox.com