Prevalence of Benign Fasciculation Syndrome Among Medical Students and Its Relationship with Academic Stress
Keywords:
Benign fasciculation syndrome; Medical students; Academic stress; Muscle twitching; Sleep deprivation; Neurology; Student health.Abstract
Benign fasciculation syndrome (BFS) is characterized by involuntary muscle twitching without underlying neurological disease. Academic stress has been suggested as a contributing factor among young adults. This cross-sectional study explored the prevalence of benign fasciculations among medical students and examined their relationship with perceived academic stress. Participants completed standardized questionnaires regarding stress levels, sleep duration, caffeine consumption, and physical activity. Students reporting higher academic stress and shorter sleep duration experienced fasciculations more frequently than their peers. Most symptoms were transient and were not associated with objective neurological deficits. The findings highlight the importance of stress management and reassurance in reducing anxiety associated with benign neurological symptoms.
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Copyright (c) 2019 Chrysoula Vogiatzaki, Nektarios Mavroudis, Evangelia Kapsali (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
© The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction, adaptation, and commercial use in any medium, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and the source, a link to the license is provided, and any changes made are indicated.
