Dr. Richard Lewis, associate chair of neurology at Wayne State's School of Medicine, commented about Guillain-Barre syndrome, a disease that often causes temporary paralysis and strikes 1 or 2 in 100,000 people in the United States. The disease\'s course ranges widely among patients, but it usually lasts two to three weeks from onset to its worst point, Lewis said. "Then there\'s a period of plateau, then recovery that can take weeks or years. About one-third of patients are fully paralyzed and the rest usually have some kind of paralysis."