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Causes and Symptoms of Dystonia

January 4, 2010


Dystonia

Dystonia is a disorder of muscle movements in which certain involuntary muscle contractions leads to repetitive, twisting or abnormal movements of boy parts. This occurs because a part of the brain that controls the muscles contractions gets affected. It may affect a single muscle or a group of muscles.

Sometimes it may affect the muscles of the whole body and is called generalized dystonia while at times it affects certain muscles in some parts of the body and is called focal dystonia. If it affects two or more body parts that are not lying side by side then it is called multifocal dystonia. If it affects two or more side by side body parts then it is called segmental dystonia. If it involves the arms and legs on one side of the body then it is called hemidystonia. Dystonia may affect at any stage of the life from childhood to old age.

Causes of Dystonia

The main reason for dystonia is the improper functioning of a part of brain that controls the movement of muscles. Dystonia may be a result of defective gene that leads to early onset of dystonia. Other causes for dystonia includes stroke, traumatic brain injury, brain tumor which cause damage to some parts of the brain. Certain infectious diseases like encephalitis and tuberculosis may also leads to dystonia. Oxygen deprivation, poisoning due to carbon monoxide or heavy metals or reaction towards certain drugs may also cause dystonia.

Symptoms of Dystonia

Based on the part of the body that gets affected dystonia may cause poor or deteriorating handwriting. There may be forcible contractions in the legs while walking forward and that may make you to fall down. If the neck muscles are affected then the person may twist his head involuntarily and at times pull the head back and forth. Some others may close one of their eyelids involuntarily and at times close both the eyelids and it may impair their vision too. Some others have problem while speaking as their throat, tongue or lip muscles are affected. They may even face difficultly while swallowing food.

Your symptoms may become worse when you are tired or stressed. If you or your relatives have such difficulties then consult a doctor and he may help you with drugs that correct the imbalances in neurotransmitters.


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