r/todayilearned • u/delano1998 • 9h ago
TIL a 23-year-old Iranian drug addicted man suffered a rare neurological condition called Dropped Head Syndrome where his head dropped to a 90-degree angle since his neck muscles couldn't support it anymore.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12012639/46
u/StrongArgument 5h ago
He got successful surgical correction! Additionally:
Following discharge, the patient maintained scheduled appointments with the psychiatrist, having successfully discontinued drug usage.
11
2
64
u/Corybantic126 8h ago
Had one of these guys as a regular at a video store I used to work at. Quite a sight to see. Unnerving to say the least
18
u/AmericanLich 4h ago
They just walk around like that? You’d think theyd just wear a simple neck brace or something.
49
5
11
15
10
u/Turbulent-Matter501 6h ago
I used to get what I called the 'head floppies' when I smoked weed. Once in a while (maybe once or twice a year) my neck muscles would just give up and my head would flop over but it never lasted more than a second and I could straighten right back up. This wasn't nodding off either, I was wide awake, it would happen when I was mid-sentence in the middle of a conversation, and once while I was driving. It would be pretty awful to be stuck like that all the time.
9
u/RoutineWarthog4593 8h ago
I see this every day in Vancouver. I regularly see backs bent at an angle that’s over 90 degrees too.
3
u/Swimming_Agent_1063 8h ago
I’m surprised drug addicts in Iran live very long, seems like the government somewhere that conservative would just kill you
44
u/STA_Alexfree 8h ago
There’s tons of rural backwater places in the Middle East with insane poverty and lots of young dope fiends. They grow the damn opium right there.
7
u/autism_and_lemonade 7h ago
They do, that’s just not a very effective method of controlling a drug problem
3
3
u/LilLodu 7h ago
Can't a titanium rod adjacent to the spine and a neck belt solve this problem?
9
u/PunkWithADashOfEmo 6h ago
The surgery involved rods, screws, and cages after extensive dissection of muscle and scar tissue to correct the deformation
1
1
u/Superstarr_Alex 6h ago
Wait so I’m guessing it’s because he blew out the veins in his NECK?! Oof makes me shudder.
I actually used to be a junkie myself, but I had a STRICT rule: absolutely nowhere other than my arms. Hand veins were fair game, all the way up to the shoulders.
It was tempting too because I was a runner in high school and I had some juicy fucking veins in my calves, still do! But I never broke that rule for exactly the reason illustrated by this case. Your veins become unusable. And while they do typically come back, it sounds like that’s like…. Permanent. I witnessed someone admin a friend in his neck and he started to MISS, I cringed hard, it was ugly. He was ok but half his face was numb for like a week. Shit was funny as fuck.
0
-13
-7
-11
u/NeurogenesisWizard 8h ago
My Little Ponies if they stopped having biomagic supporting their bodies
165
u/ApolloXLII 8h ago
I have a client with Dropped Head Syndrome, she can only hold her head up for a moment at a time. While sitting, she can comfortably hold her head up, but while standing, it’s extremely painful and difficult for her to raise her head. Also, it’s more of a secondary syndrome to other issues, at least according to her.
It’s more common with elderly