Focal Dystonia as a cause of musician's disability
by Ryan J Thomson
These letters were orginally written in September 1996 to a web page devoted to
musician's disabilities. There was much discussion of over use injury on the page, but
almost nothing on Focal Dystonia. I felt that it was important to spread the word of my
own experiences in order to help other persons with the same condition. Since these
communications (as of April, 1997) there has been much more information available on the
disorder More info on dystonia
The letters follow:
Dear Paul, I just discovered your excellent page. I haven't had a chance to explore all of
the links yet, but I hope you have a good source of focal dystonia info for other readers. I'm
a right handed violinist who has sucessfully relearned how to play left handed. The good
news is that I'm playing at a competent level again. The bad news is that I was shuffled
from doctor to physical therapist to acupuncturist to nutritionist and every other type of
health practitioner known to man for almost 4 years before I was finally diagnosed correctly
with focal dystonia. I even went to Dr Norris (who specializes in musician's disability) who
was very helpful in many ways and did his best, but tried to look at my symptoms in terms
of overuse, or stress, or using my body in the wrong way.
I have a background in biology and western medicine, a masters degree in psychology, and
a great respect for alternative health care, and I knew deep down that all of these health
care folks were missing the boat as I went from appointment to appointment. Some of my
friends began suggesting psychiatric help. After hearing about a NOVA television program
which mentioned focal dystonia I tracked down a dystonia research team at Brigham and
Women's hospital in Boston who figured out my problem in less than 10 minutes. I wasn't
crazy after all, I didn't have an over use problem(I was born with a healthy and relaxed body
that can easily sustain many hours of continuous playing with no injury). I wasn't holding
my violin the "wrong way," as some medical specialists had suggested.
I merely had a genetic disease, with these features: adult onset; no known cure; it rarely
goes into remission; its not usually progressive(the good news). The very week I was
diagnosed I obtained a left handed violin and began learning to play all over again.
Everyone told me that it would be extremely hard to do and probably impossible to regain
my former skill level. Several doctors advised against it. I couldn't see any theoretical
reason why it could not be done. My initial progress was very slow, but I kept at it. I had 15
years experience teaching violin to beginners and I merely did all of the things that I
recommend to my students, no matter how tedious. That was four years ago. My focal
dystonia symptoms on my right side of my body remain unchanged despite completely
changing the way I use that side of my body. I'm now happily playing the violin left handed
at about 90% of my former skill level and still improving rapidly day by day. I intend to be
better than I used to be! regards, Ryan Thomson
Dear Paul, sure, you can reprint my previous letter, perhaps it will help someone else!
Here's more: I'd hope that any one with some legitimate overuse or strain problem doesn't
wrongly attribute it to dystonia. I do think, however, that more medical practitioners need
to be aware of, and looking out for, genetic dystonia. Also, it is now obvious to me that
there is a viable alternative to trying to "retrain" or bombard with Botulism toxin the
offending body parts to compensate for dystonia symptoms. (a typical treatment for focal
dystonia) That is: to find out what body parts still work properly, and see if one can train
them to do the musical task!
Its just common sense: its much easier to get normally working muscles to do a fine motor
skill than muscles that don't respond properly to signals from the brain. I know that this is
not the answer for everyone, but, for example, last year I met a former professional full
time guitar player, who had just been diagnosed with focal dystonia in his fingering hand.
The meeting was purely by chance, he happened across me playing violin left handed at a
music festival, and wondered out loud why I was playing "backwards." I explained that I had
a shoulder disability, (never mentioning the words focal dystonia) and could no longer play
right handed, so I had taught myself to play lefty because everything worked properly on
that side.
He then told me that he had just been diagnosed with a rare disease that I probably had
never heard of. He, also, had been diagnosed with focal dystonia, and when I told him
about myself, you could see the light bulb go off in his head. It had never occured to him
to try playing left handed, but he had spent a couple of disappointing years trying various
physical treatments, trying to get his fingers to work properly. He could still hardly play,
even after all the well intentioned (and expensive) therapy. After our talk, he went off to
locate a left handed guitar. I hope it worked out for him.
For dystonia resources, there is also a dystonia medical group at the Mayo Clinic. There is
an interesting story about this also. I have a friend who teaches at Berkelee School of Music
in Boston. He periodically asks me to give guest lectures to his class on my area of
expertise in early country and traditional dance music. One of the lectures I did was right
after I had been diagnosed. I happened to mention to the class about my problem, and
they became interested, asking lots of questions. At the end of the class period, my friend
was very excited about what I had talked about and told me about this strange muscular
problem that his mother had in her neck, and her mother before her, that the doctors had
never been able to treat or explain.
I had talked about the genetic component of the problem and he immediately saw the
connection between my condition and that of his mother. For her whole life she hadn't
been able to control the movement of her head, and found it embarrassing to go out in
public. (I'm sure that lots of visibly disabled people experience this uncomfortable feeling)
After the class he called his mother in Minnesota and she was able to get help at the Mayo
dystonia clinic.
One of the saddest things about dystonia is that many lay people, and even highly
educated medical professionals, just refuse to believe that a person who looks normal in
every other way has some funny little thing that they can't do or a muscle they can't
control: "What do you mean, you can't move your violin bow back and forth? Of course you
can, its easy, perhaps you're holding it wrong."
As someone who has been very athletic, coordinated, and active all my life I found it
intensely infuriating and frustrating when I found it impossible to communicate my
symptoms in a way which people could understand. Its very simple to me: I tell my arm to
do some easy little thing, it does something unexpected. I try to compensate by
instructing it to do the previous unexpected thing, and it refuses and does a third thing.
And so on. Unless you've experienced it, you can't possibly imagine what is is like. (I
remember that when I was a child, I saw someone with Parkinson's disease, and wondered
why they just didn't hold their hand still so it wouldn't shake)
Anyway, I'll get off the band wagon and plug the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation:
One East Wacker Drive, Suite 2430, Chicago, IL 60601-1905, phone: 312-755-0198,
fax: 312-803-0138, email: dystfndt@aol.com
They put out an excellent newsletter and are now up to their fifth international
symposium. (The major portion of serious research in dystonia is very recent. Thanks for
your interest, Ryan Thomson
Dear Paul, Yes, I'm right handed. Yes it is true that sometimes dystonia spreads to other
parts of the body, and can spread from one side to another. However, there is tons of new
research in the past 3 or 4 years due to lots of grants to dystonia research labs. The latest
findings show that the later in life one develops symptoms, the less likely they are to
spread from one location to another. I'm probably in pretty good shape then, I hope. On
the other hand, I have become acquainted with a little girl in Keene, NH, with dystonia.
Her dystonia has been spreading, and she is having a really hard time adjusting to her
disease, partly because she is so young and doesn't understand why she is different from
the other kids.
She has lost the ability to control her arms. Fortunately, she has very supportive parents
and siblings, and has a very positive additude herself. Her legs still work fine, and she has
been running, skiing, and doing lots of other things that little kids do. She has also become
involved with a dystonia support group in NH. Regarding one of your points, there have
been large advances in the genetic work in the past 2 years. The particular chromosome
involved has been positively located(#9), and the specific gene(DYTI) is close to being
pinpointed. The genetic transmission is dominant in childhood onset, and is more
prevalent in certain ethnic populations.
On your other point, my experience suggests that there is no reason why anyone can't learn
to play left or right handed. There is a far bigger hassle for the instrument makers than for
the musicians! Ryan.
NOTES ADDED 3/16/99 in response to a request to discribe my symptoms:
Besides bowing a violin, I have some trouble brushing my teeth, I have to use two hands on
the brush to really control the angle and pressure. My right hand provides the strength, and
my left helps guide the right hand in the proper direction. Another minor annoyance is
when I extend my arm straight out from my body, like to put a cup of coffee down on a
table. My arm wobbles, and the cup sometimes drops too hard on the table, almost spilling
the contents.
The muscles in my limbs, fingers, hands, arm, are fine. What doesn't work are some
muscles in my shoulder blade that stabilize my arm. When I exert force in certain
directions with my hand, my shoulder flops around. Fortunately though, I can do many
other things fine, depending upon what muscles are needed. I can hammer a nail, throw a
frisbe, swing an ax, eat with a spoon and fork, etc, with no problem.
I can play right handed to a certain extent because I can force my right arm to move back
and forth while holding a bow. Because of my shoulder wobbling around, however, I can't
control the speed, pressure, and alignment of the bow. Its like trying to pluck a string with
a pick, and only hitting the string 2 out of 3 tries!
By the way. I discovered an obscure IRS rule that says that if your disability only affects
your ability to play your instrument, and not other life activities, and you depend upon
music making for your living, then you can deduct 100% of the medical treatment. (sort of
like deducting the cost of repairing your guitar as a business expense) That means, for
example, that if you break your arm, that's not deductable, because breaking your arm
affects all sorts of other daily activities besides music making.
Click here to read an essay I wrote on Making Music Left Handed.
Working on these letters also helped me collect information for my books:
Playing Violin and Fiddle Left Handed, which is a compendium of info on left handed
playing from the experiences of over 100 other lefty players, including a number of other
fiddlers and classical violinists alike who were also able to sucessfully learn to play play left
handed despite a disability.
Left Handed Fiddling for Beginners, which a "Teach Yourself" method for folk style fiddling,
and includes a 60 minute CD.)
This article written by Ryan J Thomson, 1996