Review: Diagnosis and treatment of paroxysmal dyskinesias revisited

• Main Authors: Iris Unterberger, Eugen Trinka
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2008-09-01
• Series: Therapeutic Advances in Neurological Disorders
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1177/1756285608095119

Paroxysmal dyskinesias (PDs) are a rare group of hyperkinetic movement disorders mainly characterized by their episodic nature. Neurological examination may be entirely normal between the attacks. Three main types of PDs can be distinguished based on their precipitating events - (i) paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesias (PKD), (ii) paroxysmal non-kinesigenic dyskinesias (PNKD) and (iii) paroxysmal exercise-induced (exertion-induced) dyskinesias (PED). The diagnosis of PDs is based on their clinical presentation and precipitating events. Substantial progress has been made in the field of genetics and PDs. Treatment options mainly include anticonvulsants and benefit of treatment is depending on the type of PD. Most important differential diagnosis are non-epileptic psychogenic, non-epileptic organic and epileptic attack disorders, especially nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy.