Somatoform Disorder

[TravelOD]

I'm a doctor, and my medical training has not helped my hypochondriasis/?somatoform? disorder at all.

Muscle twitching is something I've dealt with almost all my life, of course they call this "benign fasciculation syndrome." At my age, it is very rare to get ALS, let alone the statistics show ALS occurs in 2 out of 100,000 people. After looking up "muscle twitches" and seeing ALS, within a week I've developed every ALS symptom there is... muscle weakness, difficulty talking, twitching.

Does anyone here have any experience with psychosomatic problems?

The mind is a very powerful thing.

[396SS]

YES, YES AND YES.  I'm in the medical field too doc:)  Doesn't keep us medical professionals from being the patient sometimes does it?  I am highly educated, but that means nothing when it comes to anxiety.  Book learning, as my family calls it, doesn't help in this situation.  I started to have the same stinking symptoms this winter (mind you I have been diagnosed with panic/anxiety disorder for a good 5 yrs now).  Due to parasthesias in my hands, feet and weakness in my calves, I got an MRI of the brain spine w/ and w/o contrast, nerve conduction testing, Auditory Brainstem Response testing, Visual Evoked Potentials, went through 2 neuros, psychiatrist, rheumatologist, blood work incl: b12 def, heavy metal poisoning, diabetes, celiac disease, thyroid, and many others I can't even tell you in enough time here.  All normal.  All freaking normal (except one bright spot on my corpus callosum but I've had migraines).  I had all that testing only because I happen to work in the hospital and my docs know I'm educated in the field, so I demanded all the tests and prayed insurance paid:)  So, my new neuro, who thinks outside the box, said let's do a "chronic fatigue panel".  Apparently they tested for Epstein Barre, CMV, HSV-1, HSV-2 and HHV-6, and many other viruses.  The results were a hit on HSV-1 (high titers I guess?), HHV-6 and CMV.  Granted, these are all viruses everyone should have antibodies for at some point in their lives, but I apparently had a really high titer for HSV-1 (this is obviously not my area of expertise) and he started me on Famvir.  He says it's controversial and uncharted territory, but if you think outside the box, maybe a cold sore virus can manifest somewhere other than the lip, face, etc.  Can it cause neurological issues such as parasthesias, muscle weakness, twitching, etc?  The anwer is, "we don't know", and he has seen some improvement in his patients with antivirals.  So, I am a lab rat now.

On a less medical note, stress and anxiety can cause these things.  Ever had an eye twitch?  Stress!  I honestly think that is what is causing my symptoms, but I'll give the antiviral a try at least.  I have thought I have had several illnesses before - MS, ALS, etc etc.  My psychiatrist says I know too much and therefore have "medical student disease" and that is all that is wrong with me.  He suggested that it is pretty common for med students to do this.  So try not to panic.

Take care and keep posting.  This is a great forum where I get help and hopefully have helped others with my experiences.

[suzi-q]

WOW!!!! THOSE ARE A BUNCH OF WORDS I AM NOT TOO FAMILIAR WITH!!   I am a teacher and I will have to do my vocabulary homework tonight!

[Jon454]

Adam's and Ropper in Priniciples of Neurology (the neurology bible) say fasiculations are NOT a symptom of ALS. HTH.
J