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• Summary
• Symptoms
• Treatments and Therapies

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• Living With
• Related Issues
• Specifics
• Genetics

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• Clinical Trials
• Journal Articles

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Summary

Dystonia is a movement disorder that causes involuntary contractions of your muscles. These contractions result in twisting and repetitive movements. Sometimes they are painful.

Dystonia can affect just one muscle, a group of muscles or all of your muscles. Symptoms can include tremors, voice problems or a dragging foot. Symptoms often start in childhood. They can also start in the late teens or early adulthood. Some cases worsen over time. Others are mild.

Some people inherit dystonia. Others have it because of another disease. Researchers think that dystonia may be due to a problem in the part of the brain that handles messages about muscle contractions. There is no cure. Doctors use medicines, Botox injections, surgery, physical therapy, and other treatments to reduce or eliminate muscle spasms and pain.

NIH: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Symptoms

• Symptoms and Classifications (Dystonia Medical Research Foundation)

Treatments and Therapies

• Botulinum Toxin Injections: A Treatment for Muscle Spasms (American Academy of Family Physicians) Also in Spanish

Living With

• Dystonia: Emotional and Mental Health (Dystonia Medical Research Foundation)
• Dystonia: Non-Drug Therapies (Dystonia Medical Research Foundation)

Related Issues

• Employees with Dystonia (Office of Disability Employment Policy)
• Traumatic Injury (Dystonia Medical Research Foundation) - PDF

Specifics

• Cervical Dystonia (Spasmodic Torticollis) (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) Also in Spanish
• Types of Dystonia (Dystonia Medical Research Foundation)

Genetics

• Deafness-dystonia-optic neuronopathy syndrome: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• Dopamine transporter deficiency syndrome: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• Dystonia 16: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• Dystonia 6: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• Early-onset primary dystonia: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• Hypermanganesemia with dystonia: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• Myoclonus-dystonia: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• Rapid-onset dystonia parkinsonism: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• Sepiapterin reductase deficiency: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• Task-specific focal dystonia: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• Tyrosine hydroxylase deficiency: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)
• X-linked dystonia-parkinsonism: MedlinePlus Genetics (National Library of Medicine)

Clinical Trials

• ClinicalTrials.gov: Dystonia (National Institutes of Health)
• ClinicalTrials.gov: Torticollis (National Institutes of Health)

Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)

• Article: Variant Ataxia-Telangiectasia Presenting as Tremor-Dystonia Syndrome in a Bulgarian Religious Minority.
• Article: Deep brain stimulation for dystonia treatment in cerebral palsy: efficacy exploration.
• Article: Mapping dysphagia in pediatric dystonia.
• Dystonia -- see more articles

Reference Desk

• Dystonia (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke)

Find an Expert

• Dystonia Medical Research Foundation
• National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Patient Handouts

• Botulinum toxin injection - larynx (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Spasmodic dysphonia (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Torticollis (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish