{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,15]],"date-time":"2026-10-15T15:54:31Z","timestamp":1792079671125,"version":"4.4.0"},"reference-count":29,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,14]],"date-time":"2021-12-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1639440000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Toxins"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Task-specific focal dystonia is characterized by muscle contraction(s) during a specific task, resulting in abnormal postures or movements. Specifically, writer\u2019s cramp involves the upper extremity during the act of writing. Musician\u2019s dystonia has a highly variable presentation, and thus makes therapeutic options more limited. Treatments include oral pharmacologic agents, neuromodulation, surgery and, most often, botulinum toxin (BoNT) injection. Selection of target muscles for toxin injection continues to be an area of active research for these task-specific movements. We present a review of the literature selected from a predefined search of the MEDLINE and ClinicalTrials.gov databases. We include six controlled studies of botulinum toxin for the management of writer\u2019s cramp and focal task-specific dystonia (FTSD), including musician\u2019s dystonia. Overall, 139 patients were included across all studies, with 99 individuals injected for writer\u2019s cramp and the remaining 40 individuals with FTSD. The age range of all patients was 18\u201380 years old. We included studies that utilized only the BoNT-A serotype. These studies utilized various severity scales to quantify response to toxin injection, with ratings of instrument or pen control included as subjective ratings. Of the included 139 patients in this review, pooled data for toxin response show that 73% of patients who received the drug demonstrated improvement. Specific techniques for muscle localization and targeting were difficult to study as variable methods were employed. This remains an area of ongoing exploration.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/toxins13120899","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,14]],"date-time":"2021-12-14T22:06:10Z","timestamp":1639519570000},"page":"899","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":24,"title":["Botulinum Toxin Therapy in Writer\u2019s Cramp and Musician\u2019s Dystonia"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Elina","family":"Zakin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY 10017, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"David M.","family":"Simpson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"863","DOI":"10.1002\/mds.25475","article-title":"Phenomenology and classification of dystonia: A consensus update","volume":"28","author":"Albanese","year":"2013","journal-title":"Mov. 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