Dear Kabit,
Writer's cramp is a form of cramp or spasm that affects certain muscles of the hand and fingers as a result of excessive fine motor activity like writing or playing the piano. It is a form of task-specific focal dystonia. Dystonia is an involuntary, sustained muscle contraction causing twisting movements and abnormal postures; focal dystonia means only one body part is affected. Writer's cramp is the most common dystonia occurring in the setting of repetitive movement disorders. A focal dystonia can sometimes be the first manifestation of a generalized dystonia.
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i know few thing about writer cramp but i don;t know wad writer cramp actually is??
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Writer's cramp is thought to result from a problem of control involving the basal ganglia of the brain. Normally, an antagonist muscle relaxes when an agonist muscle is contracted. Patients with dystonia have simultaneous contraction of both groups of muscles. Spinal reciprocal inhibition, a process that inhibits the antagonist muscles when the agonist muscles are active, is reduced in patients with writer's cramp. This is most probably due to aberrant descending commands.
Abnormalities in the basal ganglia lead to abnormalities of sensory processing and motor output. The normal increase in cerebral blood flow in the supplementary motor area is reduced in response to vibration and abnormal somatosensory evoked potentials. These provide evidence for the abnormal sensory processing in patients with dystonia. Increased motor cortex excitability along with decreased cortical inhibition causes abnormal motor output.
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whether it is cureable or not ???
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Usually, the prognosis is good. But treatment is generally disappointing. Behavioral changes may help.
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if skeletal muscle relaxant can 100% cure it?
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There is no proven effect available.
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also i have heard that botox injection is used for it but one should take it regular so how long does the botox injection effect last ?????
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Botox injection has been tried out in this conditions. Botox"' the popular anti- wrinkle treatment, can also ease writer's cramp, suggests a small study published ahead of print in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry and it improves the condition but has to take for long time and there is no definite period assigned.
Management and prognosis of Writer's Cramp. About 5% of patients will have spontaneous remission but the chance of relapse is high.
- Reducing the amount of writing that is done is basic to an overuse syndrome. Use of a keyboard instead of a pen may help.
- There may be some benefit from using a wider pen or an attachment to make it wider.
- Hand writing training produces improvement but does not bring return to normality.In musician's cramp attention should be directed to correct technique.
- Psychotherapy is not very useful.Historically there has been a tendency to classify the condition as a neurosis but the evidence points to a physical aetiology.
- Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) gives better results than placebo.
- A number of drugs, especially anticholinergics and L dopa, have been used with little benefit but botulinum toxin injection seems the most effective. Patients who are most likely to benefit can be identified.
- Botulinum toxin is currently the preferred method of treatment for focal dystonias.
- In exceptional cases stereotactic surgery may be of value.
Patient with Writer's Cramp has to consult with an Orthopaedic Surgeon for further intervention and treatment.
Hope this information helped you.
All the best.
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