Writer's cramp--a rational approach to treatment?

The history of writer's cramp is reviewed, and the study of ten cases described. Nine of the patients were male with obsessional personalities, and involved in a conflict with some bearing on the act of writing. Treatment by psychotherapy and re-education produced either temporary or little improvement; biofeedback, used in six cases, produced some benefit in four, of which only one relapsed. Although no statistical weight can be attached to the results of so short a series, biofeedback appears to offer a promise of response which merits further investigation. The use of the electromyograph is discussed also as a means of discriminating between tension and tremor in such cases, with particular reference to their psychosomatic meaning.