Objective: To describe an emotional trick that has not been described in patient with cervical dystonia.

Background: Geste antagoniste is a sensory trick that can temporarily improve dystonic symptoms in focal dystonia.  In patients with cervical dystonia, touching the face may help with their symptoms transiently. We describe an emotional trick in three patients that has not been described before.

Method: A case series of three patients with very similar cervical dystonia who have demonstrated an emotional trick

Results: Three women (two Caucasian and one Asian), mean age of 52 years (age range from 35-65 years). All three have established cervical dystonia with head turned to the right and head tilted to the right.  They all have left sternocleidomastoid hypertrophy. Two of the three have an established sensory trick.  One patient’s sensory trick is to touch the left chin.  The other has a similar sensory trick and in addition touching the neck on the left side helps with her symptoms.  During normal conversation, their heads are turned to the right and tilted to the right.  When they speak about pleasurable events like their grand kids, their siblings, or where grew up, the head posture improves to a normal head position temporarily.

Conclusion: Here we describe three established patients with cervical dystonia with head turned and tilted to the right.  They all demonstrated a novel phenomenon of head posture improvement temporarily while speaking about happy thoughts.  One of the patients described it as a “happy fix.” If one, could understand the physiology surrounding this phenomenon, it may lead to additional treatment options.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/happy-fix-transiently-improves-cervical-dystonia/