( Does the term Dystonia bring to mind th...)Dystonia Awareness Week: 4 -11 June, 2007,Health

Does the term Dystonia bring to mind the word tone? You are right about that; only that it refers to muscle tone or rather, impaired muscle tone .

Dystonia is a medical term for a neuro-muscular condition. It is more aptly described as a movement disorder. Individuals affected with this malady have no voluntary control over their muscular movements, which results in spasms and sustained contractions. These give rise to repeated jerky movements of parts of the body and awkward postures.

Dystonia affects men and women; especially those above 40. Children may also be affected. As it is a progressive disease with unrecognized symptoms, it often goes unnoticed. Interestingly, dystonia is ten times more common than motor neuron disease. It is also a major symptom in about 50 diseases and conditions. Ethnic populations seem to be more prone to dystonia; those of European Ashkenazi Jewish descent are especially susceptible to early-onset primary dystonia.

Of the approximately13 types discovered, focal dystonias are the most common. Here, only one part of the body is affected. Writer's cramp that affects hand-based tasks such as writing is one example. Other types include dystonia of the neck, larynx, eyes or jaws. Rare forms of the disease include brief episodes of a part or the whole body affected.

Despite the difficulty in assessing the percentage of population affected, a few statistics are available. A 1998 study in Rochester, Minnesota estimated the frequency of the disease as 29.5 individuals per 100,000 for focal dystonias and 3.4 per 100,000 for generalized dystonias. An extensive European study in 2000 for the year 1996-1997 estimated the prevalence rate for primary dystonia at 152 per million. Of these, focal dystonias topped the list with the highest relative rate at 117 per million. Currently, in the U.K., there are an estimated 40,000 people living with the disease. In North America, t
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