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Psychogenic Dystonia

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Abstract

Psychogenic movement disorders pose a complex problem in modern neurology, which requires an interdisciplinary approach to solve a number of questions related to classification, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation. The most frequent forms of psychogenic movement disorders include tremor, dystonia, myoclonus, and gait abnormality. A clinical case of a 46-year-old male patient with a psychogenic movement disorder presenting as fixed hand dystonia not accompanied by pain is reported. The terminology issues related to the most accurate determination of this type of hyperkinesis, as well as clinical tests (standard motor-skill tasks, ballpoint pen writing) that allow one to identify the psychogenic nature of hyperkinesis, are discussed using the example provided. The clinical phenomenology of psychogenic dystonia is thoroughly analyzed, and the differential diagnostic criteria of psychogenic and primary (idiopathic) dystonia are presented.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russia

    O. A. Shavlovskaya

  2. Medical Center “Neuroclinic”, Almaty, Kazakhstan

    A. I. Baidauletova

Authors
  1. O. A. Shavlovskaya
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  2. A. I. Baidauletova
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Correspondence to O. A. Shavlovskaya.

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Original Russian Text © O.A. Shavlovskaya, A.I. Baidauletova, 2016, published in Annaly Klinicheskoi i Eksperimental’noi Nevrologii, 2016, Vol. 10, No. 4, pp. 62–66.

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Shavlovskaya, O.A., Baidauletova, A.I. Psychogenic Dystonia. Hum Physiol 43, 927–931 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0362119717080102

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