Dyskinesia

Dyskinesia is a set of symptoms associated with neuromuscular disorders and other conditions. Dyskinesia involves several types of involuntary muscle movements that have varying effects on your health and daily life. If you’re having involuntary movements that bother you, it’s important to seek help from a qualified specialist to get the diagnosis and treatment you need.

What is dyskinesia?

Dyskinesia refers to involuntary muscle movements that happen in various ways. Dyskinesia movements may:

• Feel mild or painful
• Affect one part of the body or several parts of the body
• Happen at rest or with movement
• Be manageable or debilitating
• Be rhythmic or random
• Be chronic or temporary
• Happen suddenly or develop gradually

Common symptoms of dyskinesia include these types of involuntary movements:

• Muscle spasms
• Jerking movements
• Writhing or wriggling movements
• Fidgeting
• Rocking or swaying

What makes dyskinesia worse?

Dyskinesia symptoms may get worse after you’ve been taking a medication with the side effect of causing dyskinesia for a long time. Dyskinesia symptoms related to an underlying condition may get worse as the underlying condition gets worse in other ways.

If your dyskinesia symptoms get worse or change, contact your doctor.

What is an example of dyskinesia?

One example of dyskinesia is tardive dyskinesia, which occurs as a side effect of taking certain medications for schizophrenia, depression or gastrointestinal conditions.

Symptoms of tardive dyskinesia are different from symptoms of other types of dyskinesia. Tardive dyskinesia symptoms may consist of:

• Rapid blinking
• Random movements of the lips, tongue, or jaw
• Grimacing or frowning
• Waving hands or arms
• Difficulty breathing (in severe cases)

Tardive dyskinesia symptoms often go away when you stop taking the medication causing them, but they sometimes continue for many years.

If you have tardive dyskinesia, your doctor may recommend adding a medication that makes the muscle movements stop instead of discontinuing a medication that may be managing your other symptoms well.

Other types of dyskinesia

Types of dyskinesia are described differently depending on what movements occur or what condition they’re related to. Tardive dyskinesia is one of those types. Some other dyskinesia movement types are:

• Chorea: Sudden, random movements of your face, head, arms and legs. Often associated with Huntington’s disease.
• Dystonia: Muscle spasms that happen when you’re not trying to move. Spasms may last a long time or cause uncomfortable, painful postures.
• Tremors: Rhythmic contractions of muscles. Can be at rest, when moving, or postural – when you’re trying to hold your arms or legs up.
• Myoclonus: Sudden, repetitive muscle spasms or jerking.
• Athetosis: Slow, writhing movements of the hands and feet. May be similar to dystonia or chorea.
• Levodopa-induced dyskinesia (LID): Side effect that affects people with Parkinson’s disease who take the medication levodopa for a long time. May include chorea, dystonia and athetosis.
• Spasticity: Rigidity and muscle spasms that happen when you’re trying to move.

Conditions associated with dyskinesia

Conditions or situations that may be connected to dyskinesia symptoms are:

• Huntington’s disease
• Parkinson’s disease
• Stroke
• Multiple sclerosis
• Lyme disease and other infections
• Wilson disease
• Hypothyroidism (low thyroid levels)
• Brain cancer
• Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)
• Taking some antihistamine or antinausea medications

When an underlying disorder or cause can’t be identified, your condition may be described as idiopathic dyskinesia.

Dyskinesia diagnosis

Since dyskinesia is a group of symptoms rather than a condition, your doctor will investigate underlying conditions or other causes for the type of dyskinesia you have. They’ll order appropriate lab tests on blood or urine along with various imaging tests. A spinal tap to gather cerebrospinal fluid for testing may be done.

Your doctor will determine the type of dyskinesia based on their observations of your movements, your medical history, and the results of testing or imaging. They may seek input from other specialists, such as neurologists or experts in pain management.

Dyskinesia treatment

If your symptoms are mild and any underlying condition isn’t life-threatening, your doctor may decide to observe your health for a period of time through regular checkups.

Medications to treat symptoms of dyskinesia may be prescribed for you.

Botox injections may help different types of dyskinesia, particularly those affecting the face.

Deep brain stimulation is a surgical option where electrodes are placed in your brain to manage dyskinesia symptoms. It’s seen to be most effective for people with genetic or idiopathic dyskinesia.

Your multidisciplinary Advocate Health Care team will work with you to decide about dyskinesia treatments that may reduce your symptoms and improve your quality of life.