This film is a great resource for sufferers
Like many of the people who have posted on this board, I am a sufferer of DPD. Although I have been receiving treatment for DPD for a while, this film brought to my attention a few interesting facts about DPD that I was not previously aware of.
For example, the book that Sara was reading in the scene after Hudson tells her about his condition is real, and is the first, and to date, only English book about DPD. It is called Feeling Unreal, and is available on Amazon. The study on blood Cortisol levels that Dr. Blaine finds for Hudson is a real study, and represents huge progress in the understanding of DPD's biochemical roots in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.
The research group in Mount Sinai is also real, and is run by the world's leading researcher of DPD - Dr. Daphne Simeon. While I am glad that the research group was given exposure in the movie, its depiction here is utterly disgraceful. The doctor who is presumably based on Dr. Simeon is portrayed as a hopeless academic whose attempts at understanding DPD have been futile. In reality, many of the patients who have undergone experimental treatment at her clinic have experienced temporary or even full remission. If you are accepted by her research group, don't be put off by this movie - GO!
Indeed, every piece of information gathered from this film should be taken with a grain of salt. Just off the top of my head, Divalproex sodium (prescribed to Hudson by the psychopharmacologist) is not an antipsychotic, anxiolytic, or in fact at all useful in the treatment of DPD; combining MAOIs (Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors) with Duloxetine (a Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor) as alluded to in Hudson's drug "cocktail" results in serotonin syndrome, and probably death.
So, while Numb is a great film, and can be a great resource, if I may say a word to the wise: use with caution.