Jerks/ twitches resident survival guide
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Moises Romo, M.D.
Synonyms and Keywords: jerks, twitches, abnormal movements, movement disorders, movement disorders approach
Overview
Movement disorders are common conditions. The clinical presentation of movement disorders is complex and often has variation from person to person. Therefore, finding the correct diagnosis may be challenging. A focused physical examination and history are imperative, and many times the only required resource to establish the diagnosis. Movement disorders may be divided into hyperkinetic and hypokinetic, and this can be evaluated by performing a finger or foot tapping. Among the hyperkinetic disorders, you may classify them as jerky and non-jerky, while hypokinetic may vary in velocity, but in the end, are classified as a whole. The most common hyperkinetic disorder is essential tremor, while the most common hypokinetic one is Parkinson's disease.
Causes
Life Threatening Causes
Life-threatening causes include conditions that may result in death or permanent disability within 24 hours if left untreated.
Common Causes
Diagnosis
Shown below is an algorithm summarizing the diagnosis of Abnormal movements according thee American Academy of Neurology guidelines:[1][2]
| Patient with movement disorders | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Perform physical examination | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Perform finger or foot tapping | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Increased alternating movements | Progressive fatiguing and decrement of repetitive alternating movements | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hyperkinetic/non-rigid | Rigid | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jerky | Non-jerky | Akinetic | Hypokinetic | Bradykinetic | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sudden, brief, shock-like involuntary movements | Randomly flowing movements, which are, individually, jerky in nature | ‘Stereotyped’ character of the recurrent movements | Involuntary, rhythmic and sinusoidal alternating movements of one or more body parts | Involuntary abnormal co-contraction of antagonistic muscles, which may cause sustained abnormal postures or twisting and repetitive movements | Parkinsonism | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Myoclonus | Chorea | Tics | Tremor | Dystonia | • Parkinson's disease • Juvenile parkinsonism • Infectious • Drugs • Toxins • Vascular • Trauma • Metabolic • Corticobasal degeneration (CBD) • Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) • Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) • Lewy Body Dementia (LBD) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Treatment
Do's
- The content in this section is in bullet points.
Don'ts
- The content in this section is in bullet points.
References
- ↑ Flemming, Kelly D; Jones, Lyell K (2015). doi:10.1093/med/9780190244927.001.0001. Missing or empty
|title=(help) - ↑ Abdo, Wilson F.; van de Warrenburg, Bart P. C.; Burn, David J.; Quinn, Niall P.; Bloem, Bastiaan R. (2010). "The clinical approach to movement disorders". Nature Reviews Neurology. 6 (1): 29–37. doi:10.1038/nrneurol.2009.196. ISSN 1759-4758.