Dystonia - painful, involuntary muscle contractions that leave person feeling "stuck"

MICKLETON, N.J. (WPVI) -- Nearly everyone gets a muscle cramp from time to time.

When muscle contractions won't stop and can't be controlled, that's called dystonia.

A South Jersey man is now sharing his long experience with it.

"I was a nurse at the time and I was punched in the neck five times by a psychiatric patient," recalls Tom Mooney of Mickleton, N.J

Several days later, Tom Mooney started getting pain up into his neck and down into his shoulder.

Muscles there just wouldn't relax, and his condition only got worse over time.

"I actually had pain from the time I woke up, lifted my head off the pillow in the morning until the time I went to bed at night," Tom says.

After two years of tests and treatments, and very nearly surgery, a doctor in rehabilitation medicine found out what worked.

"He injected Botox into my neck and it was like a miracle," says Tom, adding, "Three days later, I was pain-free."

His diagnosis was dystonia, which Temple Health neurologist Molly Cincotta describes as:

"A type of movement disorder that is involving muscles that are overactive and contracting continuously."

Dr. Cincotta says dystonia falls into two major types:

* Global - which is genetic, affects the whole body, and usually appears in childhood.

* And the more common focal type, affecting one area, such as the neck.

Dystonias can be action-induced, often occurring in experts doing the same movements for decades to the point it's second nature, such as professional violinists.

"Performers, professionals, we see this in professional athletes. It sometimes goes by the name the Yips," she says.

For many years, the Yips were thought to be psychological.

"It's something about how our brains change in response to activities that we do over and over again," Dr. Cincotta says.

She says dystonias can also occur with other disorders like Parkinson's disease.

Botulinum toxin, or Botox, is the prime go-to treatment, slightly weakening the overactive muscle.

"If you're targeting the right muscles in the right way, then you're gonna get a positive response," she notes.

Tom has gotten physical therapy over the years. He doesn't mind getting injections every three months or so, because they make moving so much easier.

"I can do a lot of exercises that I couldn't do before," he explains.

Dr. Cincotta says no one knows why a person develops dystonia, but another doing the same actions doesn't.

But she says anyone with dystonia needs a movement disorder specialist, especially for the muscle injections, which require a lot of practice and accuracy.