An Analysis of Seventy-Five Cases of “Writer's Cramp” and Impaired Writing Power

Poore, G. V.

doi:10.1177/095952877806100111

Cited by 11 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…41 Both Wilhelm Erb (1840-1921) and Moritz Romberg (1795-1873) supported an organic cause. 42,43 These early theories lost favor, and subsequent outbreaks in telegraphists and typists were regarded as hysterical manifestations in emotionally vulnerable individuals.…”

Section: Writer's Cramp (Focal Upper Limb Dystonia)mentioning

confidence: 99%

A History of Dystonia: Ancient to Modern

Newby

Thorpe

Kempster

et al. 2017

Movement Disord Clin Pract

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Before 1911, when Hermann Oppenheim introduced the term dystonia, this movement disorder lacked a unifying descriptor. While words like epilepsy, apoplexy, and palsy have had their meanings since antiquity, references to dystonia are much harder to identify in historical documents. Torticollis is an exception, although there is difficulty distinguishing dystonic torticollis from congenital muscular torticollis. There are, nevertheless, possible representations of dystonia in literature and visual art from the pre‐modern world. Eighteenth century systematic nosologists such as Linnaeus, de Sauvages, and Cullen had attempted to classify some spasmodic conditions, including torticollis. But only after Charcot's contributions to clinical neuroscience were the various forms of generalized and focal dystonia clearly delineated. They were categorized as névroses: Charcot's term for conditions without an identifiable neuroanatomical cause. For a time thereafter, psychoanalytic models of dystonia based on Freud's ideas about unconscious conflicts transduced into physical symptoms were ascendant, although there was always a dissenting “organic” school. With the rise of subspecialization in movement disorders during the 1970s, the pendulum swung strongly back toward organic causation. David Marsden's clinical and electrophysiological research on the adult‐onset focal dystonias was particularly important in establishing a physical basis for these disorders. We are still in a period of “living history” of dystonia, with much yet to be understood about pathophysiology. Rigidly dualistic models have crumbled in the face of evidence of electrophysiological and psychopathological overlap between organic and functional dystonia. More flexible biopsychosocial frameworks may address the demand for new diagnostic and therapeutic rationales.

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Section: Writer's Cramp (Focal Upper Limb Dystonia)mentioning

confidence: 99%

A History of Dystonia: Ancient to Modern

Newby

Thorpe

Kempster

et al. 2017

Movement Disord Clin Pract

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Both wrote extensively about writer’s cramp, Gowers as a neurologist 8 insisting on a dystonia-based central nervous system disorder even though he was also an enthusiast for improving writing techniques, while Poore, who was a general physician, considered that peripheral muscle fatigue was the cause. 9 Both were aware of each other’s work but each called his own observations writer’s cramp. Why they were unable to agree that there might be two conditions is unclear; perhaps to have one inexplicable medical disorder was bad enough, to have two was unacceptable.…”

Section: Historical Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Writer’s cramp: is focal dystonia the best explanation?

Pritchard

2013

JRSM Short Reports

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Often considered no more than an historical curiosity, writer’s cramp remains an important disability in the workplace and the mechanism, which has puzzled the best medical minds for generations, remains contentious. A remarkable range of hypotheses has been put forward to try and explain a disability which periodically reached epidemic and economically worrying levels, but in the end medical opinion has accepted the explanation put forward by neurologists Sheehy and Marsden in 1983 that this was caused by a form of focal dystonia. However, the majority of the historical descriptions of writer’s cramp do not fit the classical parameters of focal dystonia and are more accurately described as a progressive forearm muscle fatigue. Today’s keyboard operators continue to complain of symptoms identical to their clerical forebears demonstrating that this is a problem which has evolved but not disappeared; this has the paradoxical advantage that modern research techniques enable this complaint to be revisited. The result shows that two varieties of writer’s cramp have always existed and while focal dystonia remains a valid explanation for a minority of cases, the much more common fatigue-based complaint is better explained by chronic compartment syndrome of the forearm.

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Golfers' cramp: Clinical characteristics and evidence against it being an anxiety disorder

Sachdev

1992

Movement Disorders

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The clinical characteristics of 20 golfers suffering from golfers' cramp or the "yips" are described. The typical description is that of a middle-aged golfer who has played competitive golf since his teens and develops the problem during a tournament in the form of a jerk, spasm, or freezing of movement while putting or chipping, with the rest of the game being relatively unaffected. The problem generally takes a chronic fluctuating course, and a number of 'trick' strategies are partially or fully successful. In this study, the subjects were compared with a matched group of 20 unaffected golfers on a number of indices of psychopathology; no significant differences emerged. The more severely affected golfers also did not differ significantly from the mildly affected ones, except on the subjective report of anxiety. These data support the argument that golfers' cramp is not an anxiety disorder or a neurosis. The important role of anxiety and arousal in its manifestation is, nevertheless, recognized and its pathophysiology speculated upon.

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An Analysis of Seventy-Five Cases of “Writer's Cramp” and Impaired Writing Power

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

A History of Dystonia: Ancient to Modern

A History of Dystonia: Ancient to Modern

Writer’s cramp: is focal dystonia the best explanation?

Golfers' cramp: Clinical characteristics and evidence against it being an anxiety disorder

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