The "Stiff-Man" Syndrome

The object of this paper is to report two cases of an obscure neuromuscular disorder first described by Moersch and Woltman1and called by them the "stiff-man" syndrome. Since then only a few cases have been recorded, one by Asher2and another by Price and Allott.3In addition, Campbell4and O'Conner5have each made a brief report of a patient in whom this diagnosis was thought, retrospectively, to be correct. It is possible that the disorder may not be as rare as it seems: since emotional disturbance is one of several factors which may lead to exacerbation of symptoms, these may be mistakenly regarded as of psychogenic origin. Thus, 5 of Moersch and Woltman's 14 patients were initially labeled as "functional"; for 10 years Asher's patient was thought to be suffering from "hysterical spasms," and a similar view was taken of O'Connor's patient. The first