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Writer's Cramp—A Rational Approach to Treatment?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Ellis Bindman  and
R. W. Tibbetts
Ellis Bindman
Affiliation:
The Midland Nerve Hospital; Birmingham University, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2NJ
R. W. Tibbetts
Affiliation:
The Midland Nerve Hospital, Elvetham Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2NJ
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Abstract

The history of writer's cramp is reviewed, and the study of ten cases described. Nine of the patients were male with obsessional personalities, and involved in a conflict with some bearing on the act of writing. Treatment by psychotherapy and re-education produced either temporary or little improvement; biofeedback, used in six cases, produced some benefit in four, of which only one relapsed. Although no statistical weight can be attached to the results of so short a series, biofeedback appears to offer a promise of response which merits further investigation. The use of the electromyograph is discussed also as a means of discriminating between tension and tremor in such cases, with particular reference to their psychosomatic meaning.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 131 , Issue 2 , August 1977 , pp. 143 - 148
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 1977 

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