Writer's Cramp—A Rational Approach to Treatment?
- 1 August 1977
- journal article
- Published by Royal College of Psychiatrists in The British Journal of Psychiatry
- Vol. 131 (2) , 143-148
- https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.131.2.143
Abstract
The history of writer's cramp is reviewed, and the study of ten cases described. Nine of the patients were male with obsessional personalities, and involved in a conflict with some bearing on the act of writing. Treatment by psychotherapy and re-education produced either temporary or little improvement; biofeedback, used in six cases, produced some benefit in four, of which only one relapsed. Although no statistical weight can be attached to the results of so short a series, biofeedback appears to offer a promise of response which merits further investigation. The use of the electromyograph is discussed also as a means of discriminating between tension and tremor in such cases, with particular reference to their psychosomatic meaning.Keywords
This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:
- A Psychosomatic Study of Writer's CrampThe British Journal of Psychiatry, 1965
- Motor manifestation of conflict in interview: a case study.The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1956
- Psychodynamic Themes and Localized Muscular Tension during PsychotherapyPsychosomatic Medicine, 1954