From neurologist Steve Novella
Normally I try to refrain from making medical diagnoses in public cases – but Jennings has now inserted herself in to the anti-vaccine movement, and is using her own case to “warn about the dangers of vaccines.” To mitigate the damage to public health brought about by misinformation in this case, I think it is necessary to provide some expert opinion.
The movements and symptoms that Ms. Jennings displays on the public videos I have seen (linked to above) are not compatible with the diagnosis of dystonia, or any other movement disorder. Dystonia is one type of involuntary contraction of muscles. It can be reduced or exacerbated by certain movements or positions, and there are “task specific” dystonia, such as writer’s cramp, that come out only with certain activity. Jennings does not display the type of movements that are consistent with dystonia. Her speech and movement are, however, very suggestive of a psychogenic disorder.
This also seems to be the consensus opinion of experts who have viewed this case. The Dystonia Medical Research Foundation had this to say about the case:
Because of the concern of individuals with dystonia as to whether or not to get a flu shot because of this reported case, we have sought the opinion of dystonia experts on this case. Based on the footage that has been shared with the public, it is their unanimous consensus that this case does not appear to be dystonia.
http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?page_id=2He updates today adding:
The story appears to have been broken by the Loundountimes.com. Reporter Nicholas Graham discloses the Jennings is a colleague of his, and undoubtedly that is how he heard of her story. The story was then picked up by a Fox affiliate in DC, reported by Claudia Coffey. From there it was picked up nationally by Fox News and Inside Edition.
Generation Rescue president, Stan Kurtz, apparently saw the Jennings story as an opportunity to get some free press for their anti-vaccine nonsense. They “reached out” to Jennings. Here is what Kurtz had to say in an interview with Coffey.
“And the story is, anyone that sees– it is just so compelling, Jenny was crying over it,” says Kurtz.
Kurtz also believes with the proper treatment, some of her symptoms may be reversible.
“Well, unfortunately we happen to be very good at handling vaccine injury. We’ve got a lot of doctors that have experience in doing that, so our doctors and our resources are completely available to her, and we’re going do everything we can to give her a lot of options to, to help take care to help recover from this condition as best we can,” says Kurtz.
Poor Jenny was in tears, and Kurtz was ready to help by unleashing anti-vax quackery to treat Jennings.
But then Kurtz and Generation Rescue ran into a real patient advocacy group – Rogers Hartmann and dystonia activism. Hartmann runs an independent dystonia charity, lifewithdystonia.com. It was clear to Hartmann (as it was to anyone sufficiently familiar with dystonia) that Jennings did not have dystonia. She called Fox and Stan Kurtz – and then the furious backpedaling began. Until then Coffey had accepted the story at face value, without any journalistic due diligence in evidence. When she learned that perhaps she had been snookered, the panicked calls to Hartmann began.
http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=1163