A Case of Spasmodic Torticollis Healed by Behavior Therapies

Abstract

This is a case report of a 27-year-old woman with spasmodic torticollis. At age 2,she was taken ill with cerebral palsy and afterwards epileptic seizure appeared. Since then, she had been treated with antiepileptics. In April 1978,she was admitted to the Rehabilitation Center for disabled persons. After a while she suffered from spasmodic torticollis and was attended at an out-patient clinic of our hospital. Although organic diseases were not observed. Some psychological conflicts at the Rehabilitation Center i.e. difficulty in keeping discipline and in following rules as well as in maintaining discipline with others seem to be related to her spasmodic torticollis. From the findings mentioned above, we diagnosed this case as psychogenic spasmodic torticollis and then we applied the shaping procedure based upon the operant principle and autogenic training at the outpatient clinic. In this manner, the symptom continued to gradually improve and was almost healed after 6 months by these therapies. In this paper, we reported a case of psychogenic spasmodic torticollis that was healed by behavior therapies.