What is Dystonia?
Dystonia is a neurological disorder which is characterized by sustained and involuntary contractions of opposing muscles that result in twisting movements or abnormal postures. It may affect any body part: hands, arms, legs, neck, trunk, eyelids face or jaw.
Dystonia is further defined by the body parts it affects:
- Focal Dystonia, which affects a single body part or location (i.e. the eyes in blepharospasms; the neck in cervical dystonia; one hand in writer’s cramp)
- Segmental Dystonia – affecting adjacent body parts (i.e. one neck and an arm, the trunk and the leg etc.)
- Hemidystonia – affecting one side of the body (i.e. whole left side of the body )
- Generalized – affecting more than 2 segments of the body
How Prevalent is Dystonia?
More categories of dystonia:
Blephorospasms or Meige’s Syndrome is a focal dystonia which causes severe blinking or screwing of the eyes
Cervical Dystonia or Spasmodic Torticollis is a focal dystonia, causing neck spasms and muscle contractions in the neck area
Tardive dystonia may be an interaction with certain drugs. To read more, please follow the link.
Traumatic dystonia is very serious and require ongoing treatment by a specialist as well.
Psychogenic dystonia affects only 1-5% of the population, and requires ongoing treatment by a specialist as well.
