What kind of dystonia do have?

[Lady4]

I spotted this article earlier by Re-Active whilst browsing for another success story and thought useful info to share:

What kind of dystonia do I have?

I got great questions this week and wanted to share a diagram and article that has been really helpful

The question was about how to distinguish functional dystonia from idiopathic dystonia. This can be really tough! Especially when both can be present at the same time.

So I crafted a summary for you here to compare and contrast some key distinguishing features (I go in more detail in my live today)

Idiopathic dystonia typically includes:

- An insidious and evolving onset (sometimes with high repetition under stressful conditions in task specific dystonia)

- No key identifiable event (but as above—can be with repetitive activities)

- Usually a very slow or no progression without clear remissions

- On clinical exam: a repeatable pattern of distinct muscular contractions

Causes of idiopathic dystonia include: task specific (like musician’s or runner’s), genetic, and with movement disorders (such as Parkinson’s)

Functional dystonia typically includes:
- A more sudden onset or evolving in a few days

- A trauma or injury (or accumulation of both) as precipitating events

- Rapid progression to max severity and occasional complete remissions

- Either fixed dystonia or a variable pattern of muscular contractions with attention changing symptoms


Now of course, nothing is as simple as one instagram slide. There are a lot of nuances to the process of distinguishing between the two and noticing both present.

So what do you do?

First—get yourself a skilled movement disorder neurologist for diagnosis.

And then get yourself a skilled rehabilitation team that understands dystonia

So they can help put together the pieces—what is dystonia, what might be functional dystonia—and ultimately help you get back to life by treating all of it, the WHOLE person.

[Shimmyaway]

Do we know where the skilled movement disorder specialists 'live' in the NHS? Is the access via the mental health route or neurology? I am unsure whether dystonia is categorised as a neurological problem or neuro psychiatric .. or can it be either , depending on other symptoms? ... a complicated scenario.

[Lady4 in reply to Shimmyaway]

The rehabilitation team would be OT and PT members no doubt. There is an education class soon about Dystonia, so I will find out more.