2013 Reports

Two Task-Specific Dystonias in One Hand

Linssen, Manon; Delnooz, Cathérine; van de Warrenburg, Bart

Background: Dystonia is characterized by involuntary muscle contractions that lead to abnormal postures and/or repetitive movements. Task‐specific dystonia only manifests during a specific activity.
Case report: We report a case of a female with writer's cramp who developed a second task‐specific hand dystonia (tremor and abnormal posturing of the hand while using a computer mouse) many years after the initial onset.
Discussion: This observation is in agreement with the concept that task‐specific hand dystonia is induced by repetitive, skilled hand movements in those who have an intrinsic vulnerability towards developing “dystonic” motor programs.