December 2011
Phukan J, Albanese A, Gasser T, Warner T
The dystonias are a heterogeneous group of hyperkinetic movement
disorders characterised by involuntary sustained muscle contractions
that lead to abnormal postures and repetitive movements.
Dystonia
syndromes represent common movement disorders and yet are often
misdiagnosed or unrecognised. In recent years, there have been
substantial advances in the understanding of the spectrum of clinical
features that encompass dystonia syndromes, from severe generalised
childhood dystonia that is often genetic in origin, to adult-onset focal
dystonias and rarer forms of secondary dystonias, to dystonia as a
feature of other types of CNS dysfunction.
There has also been a
rationalisation of the classification of dystonia and a greater
understanding of the causes of dystonic movements from the study of
genetics, neurophysiology, and functional imaging in the most prevalent
form of dystonia syndrome, primary dystonia.
