Print

Print


I've been following the discussions on freezing and I would suggest that
some confusion results from semantics.  Immobility while lying in bed is
not what I would term freezing although I can see how people might easily
refer to such a state as being "frozen".  I believe freezing in the
neurologic linguo refers to problems of ambulation.   The distinction is
significant because the causes of each are distiinct.  I would define
freeziing as:  the inability to sustain gait in an environment compatible
with gait and the subject's intention to sustain gait.  I would speculate
that there are two categories of pathology that are repsonsible for
freezing.  One, I believe, is a result of disturbances in the autonomic
nervous system (ANS) and is seen as abnormal response to environmental 
tension inducing sitiuations.  An example is freezing which occurs while
trying to cross a busy street or getting to a ringing telephone.  The
second is visual and has to do with the occlusion of peripheral vision for
example by the walls that frame a doorway.  (Most of us would not freeze
going through a "doorway" made of thin sticks or while closing one's eyes.)
 

The "frozen" in bed syndrome has more to do, I believe, with the rigidity
of being undermedicated.   Such rigidity , I believe, is a consequence of
increased muscle tone (also an ANS disturbance) but the distinction is that
in freezing this ANS pathology is induced by  the environment and can occur
while fully medicated while in the "frozen in bed state"  it comes from
being undermedicated. 

regards,

Tom