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Symptoms
By Mayo Clinic staffDystonia symptoms typically:
- Begin in a single region, such as your foot or hand.
- Occur with a specific action. For example, you may experience involuntary contractions in one leg when walking forward, but not when running forward or walking backward.
- Worsen with stress, fatigue or anxiety.
- Plateau within a few years.
The impact of dystonia on a person's quality of life varies depending on the part of the body affected and the severity of contractions:
- Eyelids. Rapid blinking or squinting (blepharospasm) can be so severe as to make a person functionally blind.
- Neck. Cervical dystonia may cause the head to twist and turn painfully to one side, or to pull forward or backwards.
- Jaw and tongue. Oromandibular dystonia may cause slurred speech or difficulty eating or swallowing.
- Hand and forearm. Writer's cramp or musician's cramp causes pain during a single repetitive motion, such as writing or playing an instrument.
