Introduction to dystonia

The understanding of dystonia has evolved since the recognition of writer’s cramp amongst members of the British Civil Service in the 1830s (Table 1.1) (1). Although Hermann Oppenheim is usually credited with the introduction of the term “dystonia” in his landmark work published in 1911 (2), he was not the first to describe the abnormal postures and sustained muscle contractions that characterized this hyperkinetic movement disorder. In 1887, Horatio Wood, the chairman of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania, the first Department of Neurology in United States, described facial (blepharospasm) and oromandibular dystonia (3). In 1888, William Gowers (4) described dystonic postures in hands and feet, which he called “tetanoid chorea, " in two siblings who were later diagnosed with Wilson’s disease, a disorder that had not yet been named. In 1897, Barraquer-Roviralta (5) described the generalized dystonia phenotype, but termed it “athetosis.”.