The work of several doctors such as Nancy Byl and Joaquin Farias has shown that sensorimotor retraining activities and proprioceptive stimulation can induce neuroplasticity, making it possible for patients to recover substantial function that was lost to focal dystonia. For some dystonias, Deep brain stimulation may be considered where BoNT treatment fails. If the dystonia is cause by an underlying nerve entrapment, surgical decompression has shown to have improvement in some cases. Prognosis
Recovery from focal dystonia has varying results, ranging from minimal improvement in function to complete recovery and ranging from weeks to years. Prevention
Though studies on prevention of focal dystonia is limited, it is believed for musicians dystonia that mindfulness of muscle use and proper rest can help prevent focal dystonia and injury. Performing Arts Medicine
Musicians Dystonia
Musicians dystonia treatment studies have yielded varying results. This condition can often be misdiagnosed as psychogenic, as this was previously thought to be its cause. In this population, men are affected more than women from 20 to 60 years of age. Evaluation of musicians dystonia should include history before and after symptom onset and observation of playing the instrument, as deficits can be subtle and considered minor to the general population. Treatment modalities available, such as BoNT/A, leave many musicians unsatisfied due to muscle weakness and lack of improvement in muscle control. In musicians, this is commonly associated with overuse or high volume of practicing.
Also, synchronous afferent stimulation of peripheral muscles induces organizational changes in motor representations, characterized both by an increase in map size of stimulated muscles and a reduction in map separation, as assessed using transcranial magnetic stimulation.The cross-connectivity between areas that are normally segregated in the sensory cortex may prevent normal sensorimotor feedback and so contribute to the observed co-contraction of antagonist muscle groups, and inappropriately timed and sequenced movements that underlie the symptoms of focal dystonia. It is hypothesized that a deficit in inhibition caused by a genetically mediated loss of inhibitory interneurons may be the underlying cause of the deficits observed in dystonia.While usually painless, in some instances the sustained contraction and abnormal posturing in dystonia cause pain. Focal dystonia most typically affects people who rely on fine motor skills—musicians, writers, surgeons, etc. It is thought that the excessive motor training those skills require may contribute to the development of dystonia as their cortical maps become enlarged and begin to overlap. Focal dystonia is generally "task-specific," meaning that it is only problematic during certain activities. Diagnosis
The diagnosis of focal dystonia is highly dependent on the history of the patient, as physical exam is typically normal, and ruling out other causes of movement disorder. The main types of are blepharospasm, oromandibular dystonia, spasmodic dysphonia, spasmodic torticollis, and limb dystonia, all affecting a different region of the body. Labs and imaging may be ordered as workup to evaluate for other causes of dystonia.