I read with interest Dr. Stanley Caroff’s excellent article on neuroleptic malignant syndrome (Current Psychiatry, December 2003).
As an instructor of psychiatry residents and clinical staff, I have utilized an acronym that helps raise the index of suspicion for NMS. Coming from the northland, it isn’t difficult for me to correlate shaking and stiffness with “FARGO:”
Fever
Autonomic dysregulation
Rigidity
Granulocytosis
Orientation changes
Andrew McLean, MD
Clinical professor of neuroscience
University of North Dakota School of Medicine
and Health Sciences
Fargo, ND