Dressler D, Adib Saberi F (2017) Rehabilitation of Dystonia. In: Chien HF, Barsottini O (Eds) Movement Disorders Rehabilitation. Springer, New York. pp67-82.

Rehabilitation of dystonia presents as a special challenge, as dystonia is not curable and its course is almost always chronic. Nevertheless, rehabilitation of dystonia is not fully established yet and many of its basic questions are not yet answered. In few countries is rehabilitation of dystonia implemented within the health care systems.

Given this background, the book chapter ‘Rehabilitation of Dystonia’ by Professor Dirk Dressler und Dr. Fereshte Adib Saberi in the recently published Springer monograph ‘Movement Disorders Rehabilitation’ by Hsin Fen Chien and Orlando Graziani Povoas Barsottini tries to give an updated overview about the current state of the art. Starting with a brief description of the many manifestations of dystonia its special features, which may be relevant to current or future rehabilitation concepts, are analysed. Subsequently, the framework of the most important dystonia therapies is outlined and the key elements of rehabilitation of dystonia including physiotherapy, occupational therapy, psychotherapy, social counselling and the use of orthoses and devices are described. The overall goal of rehabilitation of dystonia is re-training of normal postures and normal movement sequences, prevention and treatment of secondary complications and strategies to cope with pain and chronic burden of disease. Special consideration is given to organisational aspects of rehabilitation of dystonia.

The main part the book chapter describes the currently developed rehabilitation concepts and their outcomes for all major forms of dystonia including cervical dystonia, blepharospasm, laryngeal and pharyngeal dystonia, task-specific dystonia and non-focal dystonia.

The book chapter is addressed to physicians and health professionals, but may also be interesting for patients. Copies can be obtained from IAB – Interdisziplinärer Arbeitskreis Bewegungsstörungen.

Dirk Dressler, MD, PhD
Professor of Neurology
Head of Movement Disorders Section
Department of Neurology
Hannover Medical School
Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1
D-30625 Hannover
Germany
dressler.dirk@mh-hannover.de