Stiff Person’s Syndrome (SPS)

Just now I came across this name and thought of writing and article on it.

SPS is such a rare neurological disorder. You wouldn’t have heard about it. It is also called as Moersch-Woltman condition.

The person having SPS , would experience random muscle spams, which can be so strong that the person may fall which would lead to bone fracture. SPS is characterized by fluctuating muscle rigidity in the trunk and limbs. And the bones are highly sensitive to stimuli such as noise, touch, emotional distress, which can set off muscle spams. SPS suffer would face great difficulty in walking in streets as they are afraid that the street noise , truck horns may trigger spams and falls.

It is more common in women than in men.

Till now, doctors have not found the cause of  SPS . But they predict that SPS is caused due to autoimmune disorder ,as, people with SPS often suffer from autoimmune disorders like Type 1 diabetes and Thyroiditis .

I will explain you about Type 1 diabetes and Thyroiditis in my upcoming articles .

The symptoms and signs of this syndrome are :

• Muscle stiffness experienced in trunk and that comes and goes at anytime and no specific time can be predicted . This results in back stiffness or pain, an exaggerated upright posture, and stiff-legged walk.
• They affected individual suffers severe muscle spams in arms and legs when the person is startled, emotional, touched, upset or in distress.
• Cured low back (lordosis) and deformed joints in the body over time.
• Falling during sudden muscle spam.

As this syndrome is rare, it is mostly misdiagnosed as Parkinson’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Fibromyalgia, or a Psychological Disorder.

35% suffers don’t have no antibodies and are not suffers of cancers.

Many tests like hemoglobin A1C (used to check for diabetes) or thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) to check for thyroiditis and Muscle testing (electromyography or EMG) are done.

Till now there is no treatment i.e., sure found for SPS , but medications are given to control it’s effect and damages. Even the exact cause of SPS is unknown to the doctors.

SPS is still a mysterious disease ….