Stendhal syndrome: Origin, characteristics and presentation in a group of neurologists

Abstract

Introduction Travelling, when searching for knowledge and emotion, can cause psychic discomfort that occasionally leads the traveller to seek medical attention. The psychiatrist Graziella Magherini described, in tourists visiting Florence, acute attacks including disorders of thought and affects, and even including, anxiety attack. She named it the Stendhal syndrome (SS) remembering the experience of the writer when visiting the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence. Methods We attempt to investigate the incidence of SS or isolated symptoms related to it, in a homogeneous group of travellers. We review other artists who experienced emotion sickness during their trips throughout history. Results At the end of the III Neurohistory Meeting (Spanish Neurology Society, Italy, February, 2008) a questionnaire was handed out to the participant neurologists, in order to evaluate if during the practical workshops included in the meeting they had experienced symptoms as those described in SS. A total of 48 questionnaires were completed. The mean age was 50 ± 9 years and the male/female ratio 1.7/1. Twenty-five percent of the subjects considered they had experienced a partial SS. No panic attacks or thought disorders were identified, but they did suffer artistic effects, mainly in pleasure (83%) and emotion (62%). Conclusions No SS case was identified among neurologists attending this Neurohistory meeting, but most of them experienced mild disorders of affects and one out of four recognized they have had a partial form of the syndrome.