Myoclonus

Occasional muscle twitch is normal, but in the case of myoclonus, uncontrollable muscle movements occur, and it’s usually a simple condition.

Myoclonus

Myoclonus is a sudden and short muscle movement, such as twitching or jerking, and it’s uncontrollable.

Causes of myoclonus

Myoclonus can occur due to several reasons, and it’s divided into the following categories:

• Physiological, or normal, myoclonus: it occurs in healthy people and typically doesn’t require treatment, such as hiccups, when sleep starts, startle reflexes, and spasms after exercise.
• Epileptic myoclonus, which occurs when the patient has epilepsy.
• Essential myoclonus: it’s not related to any condition, and it could be hereditary.
• Secondary, or symptomatic, myoclonus: it occurs as a symptom of other conditions, such as head or spinal injuries, kidney failure, liver failure, infections, autoimmune inflammatory conditions, metabolic disorders, prolonged oxygen deprivation, drug or chemical poisoning, lipid storage disease, COVID-19, and nervous system conditions like stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, dementia, brain tumor, corticobasal degeneration, multiple system atrophy, and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease.

Symptoms of myoclonus

• The jerks, spasms, or shakes are usually sudden, uncontrollable, brief, vary in intensity and frequency, and sometimes might be so severe that they could affect eating, speaking, and walking.

Diagnosis of myoclonus

• Physical exam.
• Imaging tests.
• Lab tests.

Treatment of myoclonus

• Physiological myoclonus doesn’t require a treatment.
• Treating other types of myoclonus depends on the cause.