Often the sufferers are middle aged

They would be drawn into the spirit of things by tub-thumping hits like Jeff Beck's Hi Ho Silver Lining and Wizzard's I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day.

The Scottish doctor, who practises in Whitley Bay, on Tyneside, said middle aged people, who often did not dance at any other time of year, seemed to be most at risk.

He told BBC Scotland: "I think this is a new form of repetitive stress injury or overuse injury as it's sometimes called.

"We are having patients presenting with what lay people would call a frozen shoulder, or medically speaking a capsulitis, an inflammation in the shoulder girdle.

"This seems to be caused on some occasions because of punching and weaving which tends to happen with particular dancing where people get carried away a bit and start punching the air."

Dr Rae, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association's Representative Body, said that often the sufferers did not wish to disclose what caused the injury.

However he stressed that excessive dancing was only one of a series of reasons for frozen shoulder and he did not wish to be "a killjoy".

The GP said rest was often the best cure.