A review of neurological abnormalities associated with the practise of music.

Abstract

A number of neurological abnormalities associated with the playing of musical instruments have been described which can cause great difficulty for performers. However, there has been no attempt to consider this in an Irish context, a cultural setting which encompasses an unusual range of playing styles and musical instruments. We performed a retrospective assessment of musicians referred to our service for neurophysiological testing. In this series of 17 musicians, most (59%) had more than one abnormality on testing. We discovered fifteen cases of carpal tunnel syndrome, eleven cases of ulnar neuropathy, and four cases of focal dystonia. Compared to previously published reports, our series contains a greater proportion of amateur musicians, a group not well studied in the literature.