Evaluation of the effectiveness of a rehabilitation program for the improvement of musical performance in a sample of musicians with focal hand dystonia: A case series

Background: Musician’s Dystonia is a neurological condition that mainly affects professional players when performing repetitive, finely controlled hand movements necessary for their musical practice. Purpose: The study in question aims to formulate a rehabilitation treatment protocol for patients with musician’s hand dystonia, based on integrated occupational therapy and physiotherapy interventions. Study Design: Case series. Methods: The description of the treatment protocol will be shown through the presentation of three case reports (a pianist, a saxophonist, and a violinist) who enrolled and attended an intervention program based on four common steps. The outcomes measure used for the assessments were the Disability of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand, the ABILHAND, the Tubiana and Chamagne Scale, the Arm Dystonia Disability Scale, and the Jebsen-Taylor Hand Function Test. The results were then subjected to statistical analysis. Results: No statistically significant results were obtained; however, clinically significant results were highlighted based on the observation of the raw scores of each musician. Every patient experienced varying degrees of improvement and reported significant gains in motor control, accuracy, sensory discrimination, and musical performance. Conclusions: The results of the study in question indicate that our rehabilitation program has good chances of effectiveness in improving the musical performance of musicians with focal hand dystonia.