FEATURED SEARCH TERM: while awake
What causes a patient to develop sudden weakness that interferes with the function a limb, with no obvious cause? A panic attack or “conversion disorder” spring quickly to mind, but in a minority of cases there’s a different explanation. Researchers in Scotland sought out and interviewed people who had endured functional weakness of sudden onset for more than two years. They suggest that you be alert for other predisposing factors, including migraine and fatigue.
RESULT: Functional weakness: clues to mechanism from the nature of onset
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry | Jan 1, 2012 (FREE FULL TEXT)
Don’t dismiss patients who have mysterious neurological symptoms as merely the “worried well.” A large study conducted by the same Scottish researchers found patients with symptoms unexplained by organic disease are indeed unwell: They report more disability and distress, as well as associated unemployment, than patients whose symptoms have a known neurological cause.
RESULT: Disability, distress and unemployment in neurology outpatients with symptoms ‘unexplained by organic disease’
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry | Jul 1, 2011 (FREE FULL TEXT)
