My movement disorder began with”muscle twitches”. The most useful thing any health professional could have told me back then was that this could be a side effect of any drugs I might have taken recently and that if this was the case I should avoid any similar drugs in the hope that it would not get worse or become permanent.
You could be given blood tests till the cows come home but a simple step you can do yourself is look up any recent medication to see if it is known to cause movement disorders .
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Risks and side effects of levodopa drugs: Involuntary movements (dyskinesia)
These are muscle movements that you can’t control. They can include twitches, jerks, twisting or writhing movements,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5353837/
Sertraline induced mandibular dystonia and bruxism N. A. Uvais, V. S. Sreeraj, and S. V. Sathish Kumar J Family Med Prim Care. 2016 Oct-Dec; 5(4): 882–884.
Specific serotonin reuptake inhibitors have been associated with the occurrence of drug-induced parkinsonism, dystonia, dyskinesia, and akathisia.
…After 15 days at this dosage without adverse effects, the dose was increased to 75 mg/day… she started having “strange involuntary movements of the face” with “forced deviation of the jaw” to the lateral side which was extremely distressing in nature, lasting for few minutes. Tablet sertraline was reduced to 50 mg/day, and the distressing symptoms resolved. However, after 2 months, again she started having distressing movements of the face, though with lesser intensity. Along with it, she started having severe teeth clenching and associated loud grinding noises during sleep most of the day…
In this case, the patient developed mandibular dystonia and bruxism with sertraline, and there were no other medications with known effect on the dopaminergic system been consumed. The resolution of both the symptoms after discontinuation of sertraline and the Naranjo score of 6 indicates a probable causal relationship.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6478951/
Drug-induced movement disorders S. R Duma, V.SC Fung, Aust Prescr. 2019 Apr; 42(2): 56–61.
Tardive movement disorders include dyskinesias (typically orobuccolingual), stereotypies, akathisia, dystonia (focal, segmental or generalised), myoclonus, tremor and tics. Additionally, tardive parkinsonism may be experienced.
Patients are often on combinations of drugs that may cause more than one movement disorder, thereby making it challenging to identify the culprit drug.
https://breggin.com/antipsychotic-drugs-and-tardive-dyskinesia-resources-center/
Tardive dyskinesia (TD) is a group of involuntary movement disorders caused by drug-induced damage to the brain and often associated with physical or emotional suffering. TD is caused by all drugs that block the function of dopamine neurons in the brain. This includes all antipsychotic drugs in common use as well as a few drugs used for other purposes. TD can vary from a disfiguring grimace to a totally disabling array of spasms and often bizarre movements of any part of the body.
Unless identified at an early stage and the offending drugs stopped, these disorders nearly always become permanent.
TD can impair any muscle functions that are partially or wholly under voluntary control such as the face, eye muscles, tongue, neck, back, abdomen, extremities, diaphragm and respiration, swallowing, and vocal cords.
Classic TD involves either rapid, jerky movements (choreiform) or slower, serpentine movements (athetoid). In the extreme, a patient may look as if he or she is playing a guitar in a wild rock band. He may be unable to sit or stand straight, or be unable to control constant head bobbing. Hands and feet or fingers and toes may curl uncontrollably.
A second form of TD, tardive dystonia, involves painful muscle contractions or spasms, often the neck, and sometimes leading to overall rigidity of the body.
A third form of TD, tardive akathisia, involves psychomotor agitation, an inner torture that drives the person to move about compulsively seeking relief.
