Typing cramp
| Classification according to ICD-10 | |
|---|---|
| G25.8 | Other specified extrapyramidal and movement disorders |
| F48.8 | Other neurotic disorders Including: employment neurosis, including writing cramps |
| ICD-10 online (WHO version 2019) | |
As writer's cramp ( writer's cramp , also Mogigraphie , Chirospasmus , Cheirospasmus "hand cramp" or Cheirismus ) is called a spasm of the manual writing involved and the writing hand moving muscles .
The disease was initially assessed as an overload syndrome (see the historical Meyer text below), then was considered a psychosomatic disease for several decades and is now part of the neurological disease group of dystonia (movement disorders originating in the motor centers in the brain).
Activity-specific dystonia
Writing cramps, along with golfers 'dystonia and musicians' dystonia , are activity-specific focal dystonias ( employment cramps ) that only appear during these specific activities. Writer's cramp is the most common form. It is triggered by the act of writing, as an involuntary flexion, extension or rotation of the fingers, wrist and, more rarely, the elbow and shoulder. This makes writing tedious, the writing is deformed and illegible.
Historical perspective from 1890
Symptoms
Most often it manifests itself in the flexor muscles by convulsively pressing the thumb holding the pen against the index and middle finger, which disturbs the pen position and finally becomes so strong that the whole hand clumps together like a claw while writing.
It is less common for the spring to suddenly snap into the palm of the hand. If the extensor muscles of the fingers are the seat of the writing cramp, the fingers suddenly open when trying to write, or only the index finger extends, and the writer loses the pen.
The forearm muscles are rarely contracted, and in the middle of writing the hand suddenly flies over the paper. Finally, the writer's cramp is a consequence of the trembling and incipient paralysis of the forearm muscles, where the spasmodic exertion when holding the pen is a reaction against the weak muscle condition of the arm. In all cases, the typing cramp is extremely annoying and often very painful.
causes
The causes can be very different; the most common is probably a wrong method of writing lessons , the pen position and body support while writing, also probably the use of too hard nibs , too thin penholders , rough paper . These causes must be eliminated.
therapy
The writer gets used to fleeting handwriting , which places the main activity in the ascending hairline of the letter , thus occupying the extensor muscles of the fingers more than their flexors. Another method is only necessary if the arms are half paralyzed and trembling.
Such a patient clamps the pen firmly in the fold between the metacarpal bones of the thumb and index finger, pressing it against the latter, and writes more from the wrist by means of the muscles of the upper arm and forearm. The use of very thick, rough-worked penholders , even enclosing the quill in a cork or in a thick tube, are a means of facilitating pen holding.
Tools
Maas' atremograph is exactly modeled on the palm of the hand and makes any arbitrary or involuntary movement of the fingers, which is unnecessary when writing, impossible. In any case, the outbreak of typing cramp must be prevented by appropriately restricting the typing work. In the most stubborn cases, electrical treatment or massage is necessary.
literature
- PD Thompson: Writers' cramp. In: Br J Hosp Med. 1993 Jul 14-Aug 17; 50 (2-3), pp. 91-94. PMID 8353672 .
- K. Nakashima, JC Rothwell, BL Day, PD Thompson, K. Shannon, CD Marsden: Reciprocal inhibition between forearm muscles in patients with writer's cramp and other occupational cramps, symptomatic hemidystonia and hemiparesis due to stroke. In: Brain: a journal of neurology. Volume 112 (Pt 3), June 1989, pp. 681-697, ISSN 0006-8950 . PMID 2731027 .
- Nussbaum: Simple and successful treatment of writer's cramp. Jos. Ant.Finsterlin, Munich 1882.
- Carl Ernst Bock : For those with writing cramps . In: The Gazebo . Issue 30, 1867, pp. 480 ( full text [ Wikisource ]).
Individual evidence
- ^ Roche Lexicon Medicine . 5th edition. Elsevier GmbH, Urban & Fischer Verlag, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-437-15072-3 (keyword: Schreibkrampf). - also available here