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    Writer’s Cramp (Hand Dystonia), A Simple Guide To The Condition, Diagnosis, Treatment And Related Conditions
    Writer’s Cramp (Hand Dystonia), A Simple Guide To The Condition, Diagnosis, Treatment And Related Conditions
    Writer’s Cramp (Hand Dystonia), A Simple Guide To The Condition, Diagnosis, Treatment And Related Conditions
    Ebook84 pages1 hour

    Writer’s Cramp (Hand Dystonia), A Simple Guide To The Condition, Diagnosis, Treatment And Related Conditions

    By Kenneth Kee

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    About this ebook

    Writer’s cramp (a form of forearm and hand dystonia) is a medical disorder resulting from a focal dystonia that produces difficulty in writing.
    A focal dystonia involves one area of the body (in this case the hand).
    Hand dystonia (writer's cramp) may cause dystonia of the fingers, hand, and forearm.
    Symptoms of writer’s cramp differ from person to person
    Writer’s cramp is an uncommon positioning of the fingers, wrist or elbow and muscle spasms and cramping of the fingers, hand and forearm while writing.
    Occasional unregulated involuntary movements or tremor may happen.
    All these findings cause difficulty for the person to write and for others to read their writing.
    Writer’s cramp can affect people of any age but is often diagnosed in people aged 30-50 years.
    Writer's cramp is a form of focal dystonia that is specific to the job of writing and is the most frequent focal primary dystonic disorder.
    Normally it begins with an abnormally tight grip while writing, that progresses to increasing difficulty with the task.
    Excessive muscle spasms may progress towards the hand, resulting in the abduction of the arm.
    Functional MRI indicates that there is a defect in inhibitory control that may explain the unintended stimulation of muscles and producing abnormal motions.
    Common symptoms are:
    1. Excessive gripping of a pen or utensil,
    2. Flexing of the wrist,
    3. Elevation of the elbow, and
    4. Occasional extension of a finger or fingers inducing the utensil to fall from the hand
    Prolonged periods of writing produce:
    1. Cramping,
    2. Aching and
    3. Inco-ordination of the hand.
    When the disorder progresses, the period of time needed to produce these symptoms reduces.
    There is often:
    1. An exaggeration of the normal semi-flexed position of the fingers,
    2. Hyper-extension of the distal inter-phalangeal joint (DIP) of the index finger.
    Incoordination, cramping, and aching of the hand with task-specific movements are normally the initial complaints.
    There are no X rays, special scans or blood tests available to diagnose writer’s cramp but investigations may be done to exclude other conditions.
    Writer’s cramp has no known cure but there are treatment methods to decrease the degree of symptoms.
    The reduction of the amount of writing that is done is like the treatment of an overuse syndrome.
    Use of a keyboard instead of a pen may assist.
    By using a wider pen or an attachment to make it wider, the hand can move the pen better.
    The thalamic deep brain stimulation (DBS) has been helpful in some patients
    Botulinum toxin is a frequent treatment for the symptoms, helping to normalize writing in 50% of patients and producing a partial benefit in 10% with a mean length of effect of six months.

    The writer’s cramp comes about from over-using the pen to write the story or article but is less common because most writers nowadays write using the keyboard.
    I however still use a pen for recording my patient’s history and examination results as well as prescriptions.

    TABLE OF CONTENT
    Introduction
    Chapter 1 Writer’s cramps
    Chapter 2 Causes
    Chapter 3 Symptoms
    Chapter 4 Diagnosis
    Chapter 5 Treatment
    Chapter 6 Prognosis
    Chapter 7 Wrist Sprain
    Chapter 8 Chronic Wrist Pain
    Epilogue

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherKenneth Kee
    Release dateOct 21, 2016
    ISBN9781370650231
    Writer’s Cramp (Hand Dystonia), A Simple Guide To The Condition, Diagnosis, Treatment And Related Conditions
    Author

    Kenneth Kee

    Medical doctor since 1972.Started Kee Clinic in 1974 at 15 Holland Dr #03-102, relocated to 36 Holland Dr #01-10 in 2009.Did my M.Sc (Health Management ) in 1991 and Ph.D (Healthcare Administration) in 1993.Dr Kenneth Kee is still working as a family doctor at the age of 74However he has reduced his consultation hours to 3 hours in the morning and 2 hours inthe afternoon.He first started writing free blogs on medical disorders seen in the clinic in 2007 on http://kennethkee.blogspot.com.His purpose in writing these simple guides was for the health education of his patients which is also his dissertation for his Ph.D (Healthcare Administration). He then wrote an autobiography account of his journey as a medical student to family doctor on his other blog http://afamilydoctorstale.blogspot.comThis autobiography account “A Family Doctor’s Tale” was combined with his early “A Simple Guide to Medical Disorders” into a new Wordpress Blog “A Family Doctor’s Tale” on http://ken-med.com.From which many free articles from the blog was taken and put together into 1000 eBooks.He apologized for typos and spelling mistakes in his earlier books.He will endeavor to improve the writing in futures.Some people have complained that the simple guides are too simple.For their information they are made simple in order to educate the patients.The later books go into more details of medical disorders.He has published 1000 eBooks on various subjects on health, 1 autobiography of his medical journey, another on the autobiography of a Cancer survivor, 2 children stories and one how to study for his nephew and grand-daughter.The purpose of these simple guides is to educate patient on health disorders and not meant as textbooks.He does not do any night duty since 2000 ever since Dr Tan had his second stroke.His clinic is now relocated to the Buona Vista Community Centre.The 2 units of his original clinic are being demolished to make way for a new Shopping Mall.He is now doing some blogging and internet surfing (bulletin boards since the 1980's) startingwith the Apple computer and going to PC.The entire PC is upgraded by himself from XT to the present Pentium duo core.The present Intel i7 CPU is out of reach at the moment because the CPU is still expensive.He is also into DIY changing his own toilet cistern and other electric appliance.His hunger for knowledge has not abated and he is a lifelong learner.The children have all grown up and there are 2 grandchildren who are even more technically advanced than the grandfather where mobile phones are concerned.This book is taken from some of the many articles in his blog (now with 740 posts) A Family Doctor’s Tale.Dr Kee is the author of:"A Family Doctor's Tale""Life Lessons Learned From The Study And Practice Of Medicine""Case Notes From A Family Doctor"

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      Book preview

      Writer’s Cramp (Hand Dystonia), A Simple Guide To The Condition, Diagnosis, Treatment And Related Conditions - Kenneth Kee

      Writer’s Cramp

      (Hand Dystonia),

      A

      Simple

      Guide

      To

      The Condition,

      Diagnosis,

      Treatment

      And

      Related Conditions

      By

      Dr Kenneth Kee

      M.B.,B.S. (Singapore)

      Ph.D (Healthcare Administration)

      Copyright Kenneth Kee 2016 Smashwords Edition

      Published by Kenneth Kee at Smashwords.com

      Dedication

      This book is dedicated

      To my wife Dorothy

      And my children

      Carolyn, Grace

      And Kelvin

      This book describes the Writer’s Cramp, Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases which is seen in some of my patients in my Family Clinic.

      (What You Need to Treat Writer’s Cramp)

      This eBook is licensed for the personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader.

      If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

      Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Introduction

      I have been writing medical articles for my blog http://kennethkee.blogspot.com (A Simple Guide to Medical Condition) for the benefit of my patients since 2007.

      My purpose in writing these simple guides was for the health education of my patients.

      Health Education was also my dissertation for my Ph.D (Healthcare Administration).

      I then wrote an autobiolographical account of his journey as a medical student to family doctor on his other blog http://afamilydoctorstale.blogspot.com.

      This autobiolographical account A Family Doctor’s Tale was combined with my early A Simple Guide to Medical Conditions into a new Wordpress Blog A Family Doctor’s Tale on http://kenkee481.wordpress.com.

      From which many free articles from the blog was taken and put together into 700 amazon kindle books and some into Smashwords.com eBooks.

      Some people have complained that the simple guides are too simple.

      For their information they are made simple in order to educate the patients.

      The later books go into more details of medical conditions.

      The first chapter is always from my earlier blogs which unfortunately tends to have typos and spelling mistakes.

      Since 2013, I have tried to improve my spelling and writing.

      As I tried to bring you the latest information about a condition or illness by reading the latest journals both online and offline, I find that I am learning more and improving on my own medical knowledge in diagnosis and treatment for my patients.

      Just by writing all these simple guides I find that I have learned a lot from your reviews (good or bad), criticism and advice.

      I am sorry for the repetitions in these simple guides as the second chapters onwards have new information as compared to my first chapter taken from my blog.

      I also find repetition definitely help me and maybe some readers to remember the facts in the books more easily.

      I apologize if these repetitions are irritating to some readers.

      Chapter 1

      Writer’s cramp

      I was writing about wrist sprain when I noticed that there was a related condition called the writer’s cramps.

      It sounded pretty interesting so being a writer I thought that I would find out more about it.

      The writer’s cramp comes about from over-using the pen to write the story or article but is less common because most writers nowadays write using the keyboard.

      I however still use a pen for recording my patient’s history and examination results as well as prescriptions.

      What is writer’s cramp?

      Writer’s cramp (a form of forearm and hand dystonia) is a medical disorder resulting from a focal dystonia that produces difficulty in writing.

      A focal dystonia

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