New Pharmacologic Approaches to Double Athetosis

Abstract

To the Editor: Conflicting results have been reported with respect to drug therapy of double athetosis.^{1 , 2} It was therefore deemed worthwhile to try a short-term administration of drugs, recently proposed for the treatment of extrapyramidal disorders, in two cases, both referable to early childhood encephalitis. Successive trials were carried out, and changes in symptomatology and occurrence of side effects recorded.Case 1. A 20-year-old woman, after an acute febrile illness at the age of two, had increasing dysarthria, spastic paraplegia with inability to stand or walk, athetoid movements and rigidity of the upper limbs. At the age of 16, torticollis . . .