Ekboms
Sir: I enjoyed the entertaining article `Favourite maggots' by Candida Crewe in the Christmas number of The Spectator. May I however correct her over an error of fact? Ekbom's syndrome is not remotely connected with delusory parasitosis.
I myself suffered for many years from the real Ekbom's disease in middle life but now that I am old it has worn off. K. A. Ekbom described a new syndrome, usually now referred to either as irritable legs or restless legs, in Acta Medico Scandinavica, Vol CXV111 Fasc 1-111, 1944. He summa- rised it as 'consisting of weakness, sensa- tion of cold and nocturnal paraesthesia in the legs'. The cause remains unknown.
Ekbom's syndrome is surprisingly com- mon, delusory parasitosis is extremely rare. In my own case the symptoms came on in the evening more than during the night. Fatigue and boredom were provok- ing factors. It would affect me embarras- singly on the platform at medical meetings when my legs just would not keep still. And once I had to absent myself from the auditorium during the performance by Beatrice Lillie at the Theatre Royal, Brighton, in order to take refuge in the bar where my well-nigh intolerable symptoms responded to a few whiskies!
Neville Southwell
Consulting physician, 129 Harley Street, London WI
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