I recently learned of a fellow blogger whose blog I read often was diagnosed with Parkinson’s but after a few rising symptoms that weren’t assimilated with Parkinson’s disease the doctors she visited took back their diagnosis and then diagnoses her with essential myclonus. For months she has had Parkinson’s like symptoms as well as some other symptoms and to treat these symptoms she has been on multiple drugs for Parkinson’s disease. For quite a while she suffered and had a very difficult time coping with her mis-diagnosis and the psychology of not knowing what plagued her. So here is a basic run-down of myoclonus.
First, myoclonus has different forms, essential myoclonus is one form of myoclonus. The causes of myoclonus is unclear, there are still many unknowns. From what researchers have gathered it is a failing of the nervous system, usually this happens in the area of the brain called the cortex–the outer layer of your brain that is heavily involved in information processing, including skilled and voluntary movement. Many think that an imbalance of brain chemicals causing the nervous system to struggle.
There are a few different kinds of Myoclonus:
Physiological Myoclonus
This type can occur in normal, healthy people. Examples include sleep starts (when you jerk in your sleep) this often happens just before one falls asleep. Hiccups are another example. Hiccups are an involuntary movement of the diaphram.
Essential Myoclonus
Essential myoclonus occurs on its own. The most prominent symptom is the muscle jerks. This type isn’t progressive as well, which for my friend was great news! Some researchers believe that cause is idiopathic (meaning it is caused by an unknown or peculiar reason), other researchers believe it’s hereditary.
Epileptic Myoclonus
This type of myoclonus is usually hooked to chronic seizures (like epilepsy). The jerks from the seizures may be a component of epileptic myoclonus.
Symptomatic Myoclonus
This is the most common form of myonoclus it occurs as a result of an underlying medical problem. Examples of problems that may cause myonoclus are:
- Disease of the brian or nervous system
- Infections
- Metabolic disorders
- Damage to the brain or nervous system
- Disorders that affect your ability to digest nutrients
Opsoclonus-mynoclonus Syndrome
This type is characterized by rapid, irregular eye movements. It’s most often assocation with tumors in children. Treatment of the tumor may improve the symptoms of opsoclonus-myoclonus.
Palatal Myoclonus
Palatal myoclonus is characterized by rhythmic contractions of the muscles in the roof of the mouth. These contractions may cause a clicking sound in your ear. There may also be contractions in the face, tongue, throat and diaphragm muscles.
So that is a basic run-down of myoclonus, I’ve kept it as basic as possible, so if you have any specific questions that my post didn’t answer please let me know and I’ll do my best in answering them. I felt that this post was important because I know of people that get the wrong diagnosis all the time, so it’s important to keep these different conditions in mind.
To learn more about the trials that my fellow-blogger experienced feel free to visit her site. Her documentation will bless the lives of many, many people for years to come.
