- The Role of handedness and extrainstrumental burdens on the course of musicians’ dystonia
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J Doll-Lee, E Passarotto, Altenmüller E, Lee A
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Received March 14, 2025 Accepted June 15, 2025 Published online June 15, 2025
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.14802/jmd.25064
[Accepted]
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 Abstract
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- Background
This study investigates the impact of extrainstrumental workload on musician's hand dystonia (MD) and its relation to playing ability by testing two hypotheses: 1) the dominant hand is more severely affected at dystonia-onset; 2) improvement during treatment depends on whether the dominant or non-dominant hand is affected.
Methods
151 patients with dominant-hand MD and 92 with non-dominant hand MD were assessed regarding their playing ability at dystonia-onset (T0) and after treatment (T1).
Results
There was no significant difference in playing-ability at onset between groups. Significant improvement and a greater change in playing-ability was observed in the dominant-hand group. We found no difference in the proportional frequency of right-handed and left-handed individuals in the group of patients affected on the right or left side respectively.
Conclusion
These findings suggest that handedness does not influence MD localization, but the prognosis is more favorable for those with dominant hand dystonia, potentially due to metaplasticity effects.
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