Dystonia is not a new condition. it affects thousands of people every year. Contrary to popular belief, dystonia is not a normal consequence of growing older. As a matter of fact, the onset of dystonia can occur at any age. Dystonia is not a discriminatory condition, as it will affect men, women or children.

Symptoms can include disturbed sleep patterns, tiredness, depression, poor concentration, change in vision, and more. Normal activities can be more difficult to carry out. Sounds like other diseases as well, right? That’s why it is extremely important to not self-diagnose. Neurologists and Movement Disorder Specialists are physicians specializing in various areas such as dystonia and PD, with the ability to clearly differentiate the similarities of diseases with commonalities such as these.   

The clinical features of spastic cerebral palsy are those associated with damage to the cerebral cortex and corresponding pyramidal tracts. Symptoms and motor problems include paucity of movement, increased resistance to passive movement, muscle spasm, clonus (rapid contraction and relaxation of muscles), exaggerated deep tendon reflexes and absence of change in muscle tone associated with a change in posture, for example, moving from a supine to a sitting position.

People with this disorder can survive into adulthood. Patients with NPD type a have progressive neurodegeneration, and attainment of milestones does not progress beyond 10 months in any domain. Motor milestone attainment rarely progresses beyond the ability to sit with assistance. Progression with loss of previously achieved milestones ensues, and patients appear weak and hypotonic.

These are just some of the main symptoms of MS. there are many more in other areas but to list them all is well beyond the scope of this article. it is important, however, to realise that ignoring any of the above symptoms – particularly if they are tending to grow more severe or frequent – can lead to greater problems as the disease advances.

While the nerve-muscle connections cannot be repaired, selective denervation surgery is a peripheral way to treat this condition. Doctors perform a wide variety of tests to pinpoint the exact muscles that are contracting to cause you the majority of your dystonia issues. Once they have the locations of the misbehaving muscles, they carefully cut the nerves that supply these muscles.

These are slow twisting movements of the head, neck, trunk or proximal segments of the limbs, giving rise to grotesque movements of the body and distorted positions. Dystonia grossly resembles athetosis, but differes from it in its longer duration, persistence of the postural abnormality and affection of the axial muscles. ‘Torsion spasm’ is dystonia involving the lumbar and cervical muscles. I

Torticollis is a disorder where the neck muscles contract uncontrollably, causing the head to be twisted or turned in various positions. Sometimes a jerking of the head will also occur. this condition is usually painful and certain activities such as standing and walking can make spasms worse, making even simple tasks difficult. Severe headaches are not unusual with torticollis.

Tags: Dystonia, symptoms

this entry was posted on Tuesday, December 28th, 2010 at 2:45 pm and is filed under Multiple Sclerosis MRI. you can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. you can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.