ABSTRACT
As there is a variety of psychic and somatic variables in its genesis, the writer's cramp could be a syndrome of different subtypes. Therefore 62 former psychotherapy-patients with writer's cramp were examined according to a design of several dimensions in order to find out if there were any subtypes. The parts of the examination were exploration, structural interview, neurological examination, psychological examination of the personality, examination of some electrolytes in serum and radiograph of neck spinal column. Different multivariate statistical methods isolated two subtypes of patients with writer's cramp. The first group comprises patients with fine and/or big dysfunctions of motor activity, the symptoms are independent of psychic factors or of psychotherapy. The second group is characterized of a monosymtomatic writer's cramp, of a neurosis and of remissions of motoric symptoms following psychotherapy. The examination shows that fine and/or big dysfunctions of motor activity which often co-occur the writer's cramp are important criteria for differential diagnosis and indications.
Subject(s)
Handwriting , Muscle Cramp/psychology , Psychophysiologic Disorders/psychology , Spasm/psychology , Adolescent , Adult , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , PsychotherapyABSTRACT
The author reports on two sisters suffering from writer's cramp. Genetic, somatic and psychic factors are discussed regarding their pathogenetic importance.
Subject(s)
Handwriting , Muscle Cramp/genetics , Aged , Disability Evaluation , Female , Humans , Middle Aged , Muscle Cramp/psychologyABSTRACT
The paper gives the results of a follow-up study of 58 patients after psychotherapeutic treatment as in-patients for writer's cramp. Where as immediately after discharge 74.1% of the patients felt an improvement in their condition, at the time of the follow-up study only 17.2% were demonstrably improved, with 37.9% subjectively feeling an improvement over their state before treatment as in-patients. These results suggest that the customary psychotherapeutic methods employed have less effect on the evidently multifactorial extrapyramidal-motor basic complaint but rather have the effect of improving the patient's ability to cope with this in daily life.
