Dystonia is a movement disorder and is not an epileptic condition. In general term, dystonia refers to the involuntary movements or muscle contractions in the human body. When a person has dystonia disorder, he/she may have twisting body movements or tremors and have an awkward posture. Also, in some people, dystonia can affect the whole body. Most often people confuse dystonia with a seizure attack because of the similarities of the body movements. But, dystonia is just a movement disorder and person undergoing it remembers everything whereas a seizure is an epileptic condition and the person is usually unconscious about the events.
Diseases Or Conditions That Include Dystonia As A Symptom
Dystonia symptoms are usually tasks specifics. For example, such as writing or walking improperly because of the cramp. It may be hereditary or maybe not. Few causes that are known to cause dystonia are:
- Side effect of medicines
- Lung cancer
- Altered nerve cell communication
- Genetic changes
It can also be a symptom arising out of other disorders such as:
- Parkinson’s disease
- Tumor
- Birth defects
- Stroke
- Seizure
There are many research programs that are aimed to find out the root cause of dystonia so that an effective and efficient medicine/method/cure is developed to help patients suffering with it.
Dystonia And Its Relationship With Seizures
Out of my curiosity, I searched more on dystonia and its relationship with seizures or epilepsy and I read people comments on it. I would like to share one extract from epilepsy.com that says “My daughter was diagnosed as having spasmodic torticollis dystonia by a Peadiatric Neurologist 18 months ago, aged just 6 months, she had been having “episodes” or leans….these are usually accompanied by side effects such as projectile vomiting (or choking on reflux when she was a babe in arms) and petit mals.
Her Neurologist has confirmed that the petit mals are linked with her Dystonic episodes/Dystonia but no relationship has been discussed as yet.”
And as I was reading more on it from different websites, a lot of people have found a similarity between absence/petit mal seizures with dystonia. Well, this can seem to be true as seizures show involuntarily movements but the root cause is different for both. The main difference between these two medical disorders is that dystonia is less likely to generalize whereas seizure is a generalized condition. In simple words, we can assume that seizures shows symptoms similar to dystonia as it affects body movements but studies shows that there is no connection of dystonia causing seizures.
Here is a small clipping that will help you to learn a little about dystonia disorder. Have a look.
Treatments Available For Dystonia Disorder
It becomes very necessary to get the right investigation/diagnosis to treat dystonia. Often people do not get the right treatment because they are treated for seizures rather than dystonia. However, there are some medicines which are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration but before taking them you should consult your doctor. These medicines are also taken in case you are affected with seizures/epilepsy because they work on muscle movements. But, it depends on your physician on what drugs he prescribes you to treat dystonia the best way.
- Medicines containing Anticholinergic agents such as trihexyphenidyl and benztropine. It helps to stop the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Such medicines have sedative properties so should be taken with care as per doctor’s prescription. Higher dosage can be dangerous.
- Dopaminergic agents which helps in controlling muscle movement by acting on neurotransmitter dopamine.
- GABAergic agents such as medicines including benzodiazepines. It helps to control the neurotransmitter GABA. These medicines generally cause drowsiness.
Apart from medicines, patients with dystonia disorder are recommended physiotherapy. It involves physical therapies to help overcome stress and some exercises to help in proper body movements.
Please feel free to leave your comments about dystonia disorder here and don’t forget to scroll through other informative contents on the website about seizures & epilepsy.