Dystonia disease

Dystonia is an extremely rare disease which causes involuntary muscle contractions. As a result of these muscle contractions, the person affected could have continuously repeated movements or poor and awkward posture. Dystonia disease can cause a lot of pain in some situations and treating the condition may be difficult but it is necessary to live without the symptoms affecting your life too much.

There are different types of dystonia that you should know about. Focal dystonia is a form of the condition that occurs when there is only a single area of your body that is affected by the disease. Most commonly this would occur in your neck, but it could also affected your eyelids, lower face, and even your hand. Usually dystonia will affect your whole body though, and this is referred to as general dystonia.

Diagnosis tests for dystonia disease are rather limited. Usually people end up being misdiagnosed with a different condition when they really have dystonia. With the difficulties behind diagnosing it, the best way to know if you have the condition is to watch the warning signs. Diagnosing yourself with dystonia is usually done by looking at the symptoms you notice regularly, and completing a physical and/or neurological examination with your doctor.

The most common symptoms of dystonia would obviously be the involuntary muscle contractions, poor posture, and irregular repeated movements. You may still want to look at a complete list of symptoms for the disease though to be sure.

There are other ways of determining if someone has dystonia. When attempting to diagnose someone with dystonia you also have to look at whether the condition is primary or secondary. If the dystonia is in fact primary dystonia then it could be genetically passed down, or there was no direct cause to it affecting you. However, if it is secondary dystonia then diagnosis may be a bit easier.

Secondary dystonia is just a symptom of a much more serious disease, but it can also be caused by an injury or taking medication as well. Wilson’s disease is one example of this, though it can be genetically received as well, so in a way it is both primary and secondary dystonia.

Other examples of causes for secondary dystonia include, but are not limited to: having a stroke, suffering from multiple sclerosis, brain trauma, or as a side effect from taking drugs. In particular, antipsychotic medication is the most common cause for people with tardive dystonia.

The best treatment options for dystonia will vary depending on the specifics of the condition. Depending on the severity and the type of dystonia you have you may want to use a more or less serious treatment method. For example, a much more serious condition may require surgery, while in some cases treating dystonia can be done with simple over the counter medication.

Other treatment methods could include physical therapy, stress control, and botulinum toxin injections, but there are a variety of ways to treat the condition. You will want to determine the best possible treatment method for your particular case of dystonia and use it accordingly. In order to do this successfully you will need your doctor to properly diagnose the form of dystonia you suffer from and get his or her opinion on your best treatment options.

Never attempt to treat the condition all on your own. In some cases the condition is in fact severe enough that there is no other option besides surgery or deep brain stimulation to treat dystonia successfully. No matter the severity of your condition, it is extremely important that you make sure your doctor diagnoses you and decides how you should go about treating the condition. So, if you believe that you may have dystonia disease then speak with your doctor immediately to get checked out.

Last updated on Jan 6th, 2010 and filed under Neurological Disorders. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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