2015 Articles

Focal Task-specific Dystonia among Professional Musicians in Latin America

Gatto, Emilia; Chade, Anabel; Persi, Gabriel; Parisi, Virginia; Ayarza, Ana; Campuzano, Miguel; Garcia, Silvia

The authors read with great interest the article ‘‘Focal Task-specific Dystonia—
From Early Descriptions to a New, Modern Formulation’’ by Frucht, which presented a new working conceptual model of focal taskspecific
dystonia (FTSD) attempting to integrate phenomenology,
physiology, and treatment. Nevertheless, several aspects of FTSD
remain unresolved, and Frucht suggests that international working
groups focusing on musician’s dystonia (MD) could contribute to better
understanding in the field.
The estimated prevalence of FTSD is 0.5–1% for all professional
musicians, although there is wide variation in different populations and
in the type of instrument played.2–5
To investigate the data available from their region, the authors conducted a
systematic search of MD in Latin America. The Medline, EMBASE,
and LILACS databases were explored using the subject terms
musician’s dystonia Latin America, focal dystonia Latin America,
and prevalence studies of FTSD in highly skilled musicians from Latin
America. The authors searched for articles in English and in Spanish. Data
from Latin American countries about MD are scarce, and only
isolated reports or small series of cases were found in the English
literature.