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Stiff-person syndrome

University of Virginia, Department of Neurology, Charlottesville, VA, USA

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr T M Burns
University of Virginia, Department of Neurology, PO Box 800394, Charlottesville, VA 22908, USA; tmb8r@virginia.edu

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Stiff-person syndrome (originally known as stiff-man syndrome) was first described by Moersch and Woltman in 1956.¹ They reported several cases of "progressive fluctuating muscular rigidity and spasm". Their first patient was a 49-year-old Iowa farmer who presented to the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota in 1924 with "muscle stiffness and difficulty walking". He also complained of rigidity of insidious onset that began in the neck, back and shoulder musculature and progressed over a period of years to involve the abdominal and thigh muscles. Superimposed on the rigidity were intermittent painful spasms so severe that he might "fall like a wooden man".

As the syndrome gained recognition, many considered it to be a functional disorder, in part because of its rarity and also because of its complex psychiatric overlay and relative lack of objective neurological findings in the initial stages. However, consensus gradually shifted to an organic basis with the discovery of . . . [Full text of this article]

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