To view specific content on this page, click on a category above. Writer's cramp is a task-specific focal dystonia of the hand.
Symptoms usually appear when a person is trying to do a task that requires fine motor movements.
The symptoms may appear only during a particular type of movement, such as writing or playing the piano, but the dystonia may spread to affect many tasks. People with simple writer's cramp have difficulty with only one specific task. For example, if writing activates the dystonia, as soon as the person picks up a pen or within writing a few words, dystonic postures of the hand begin to impede the speed and accuracy of writing. Back to top Symptoms Common manifestations of simple writer's cramp include excessive gripping of the pen, flexion, and sometimes deviation of the wrist, elevation of the elbow, and occasional extension of a finger or fingers causing the pen to fall from the hand. Sometimes the disorder progresses to include the elevation of shoulders or the retraction of arm while writing.