This webinar focuses on the diagnosis and treatment approach in Stiff Person Syndrome Spectrum Disorder (SPSD). Stiff person syndrome (SPS) is a rare neurological disorder characterized by fluctuating muscle rigidity in the trunk and limbs and a heightened sensitivity to stimuli such as noise, touch, and emotional distress, which can set off muscle spasms.
This disease is rare and it is considered a one-in-a-million diagnosis, although this is likely an underestimation based on the under-recognition of less severe or atypical presentations. SPSD is studied and treated as part of the MS Center’s work in Autoimmune Neurological Diseases, a collection of diagnoses closely related to multiple sclerosis. The webinar includes a short lecture on SPSD by Dr. Amanda Piquet, and ends with a live Q&A session.
> RELATED DEVELOPMENT: The MS Center’s Dr. Piquet, Dr. Bennett and Dr. Schreiner joined several other colleagues in authoring a recent paper titled “Novel clinical features of glycine receptor antibody syndrome,” concluding that doctors should be on the lookout for this condition in certain patients who show SPS-like symptoms. Click here to see the full paper at the National Library of Medicine.
For more information on SPSD/SPS and other diseases, please explore our website’s Related Neurological Diseases section.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Dr. Amanda Piquet is a graduate of Penn State University School of Medicine and completed her neurology residency at Harvard’s Neurology Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She completed a Neuroimmunology/Autoimmune Neurology Fellowship at the University of Utah. Dr. Piquet sees patients with autoimmune neurological diseases, multiple sclerosis and other inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system. Her main clinical interest includes antibody-mediated disorders of the nervous system such as autoimmune encephalitis and stiff-person syndrome as well as demyelinating disease including multiple sclerosis and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD). She has additional expertise in other inflammatory diseases including neurosarcoidosis, vasculitis, and central nervous system complications of rheumatological diseases such as lupus and Sjögren syndrome, among others.