Sign-up for our email newsletter. Four months after experiencing flulike symptoms, Dona Kim Murphey, MD, PhD, a neurophysiologist in Pearland, TX, was still feeling less than percent when something strange happened. While out walking one evening, she felt short of breath and sat down to rest.
As she tried to send a text, she suddenly became obsessed with her left hand. When the fixation persisted for a week, Murphey was reminded of a neurologic phenomenon she had learned about in medical training and witnessed in one of her patients: alien hand syndrome.
She looked it up online and felt that the definition—feeling estranged from, or having a tenuous relationship with, a hand—described her sensations. She remembered that her patient had a far more pronounced experience. To understand the problem better and rule out a more serious condition, Murphey saw a neurologist, who ordered a brain MRI to see if a stroke might have caused the problem. Testing turned up nothing, but in the weeks that followed, Murphey would experience the strange sensation periodically, especially when she was sleep- deprived or overly stressed.
First described in , alien hand syndrome can result from brain damage due to surgery, brain tumors, aneurysms, stroke, neurodegenerative disease, or trauma. Sometimes, as with Dr. Murphey, a specific cause is not identified. Variations of it involve different regions of the brain, but it generally stems from disruptions in brain networks involved in movement and control. It is also called alien limb syndrome because it can occur in the legs as well. The condition is not associated with a characteristic vascular stroke syndrome, although stroke is one of the causes.
Alien hand syndrome may occur after neurosurgical procedures, particularly when there is an incision involving the corpus callosum. There is an unexpected association between alien hand syndrome and neurodegenerative disease. Other lesions such as trauma and cancer may cause alien hand syndrome. Besides the corpus callosum, other regions of the brain associated with alien hand syndrome include:.
In general, it would make sense for visual, sensory, or motor dissociation such as hemiagnosia to be associated with alien hand syndrome. Yet, hemiagnosia is not associated with alien hand syndrome. Interestingly, case reports of alien hand syndrome are not consistent with respect to neuroimaging correlates.
Lesions of the corpus callosum are well documented. What Causes Alien Hand Syndrome? A Helping Hand: Treatment Options for Alien Hand Physicians have known about alien hand syndrome for more than a century, but it remains a challenging condition to treat.
Patient Portal. Request Appointment. The hand may touch your face, button a shirt, or pick up an object, sometimes repeatedly or compulsively. The alien hand may also levitate on its own. The hand may also engage in self-oppositional actions such as closing a drawer that the other hand just opened or unbuttoning a shirt that you just buttoned.
The alien hand is uncooperative and may perform incorrect actions or fail to follow commands. A doctor may diagnose alien hand syndrome through observation and evaluation. This makes it more difficult to diagnose because behavioral issues are more common than alien hand syndrome. Symptoms can sometimes be attributed to a psychiatric disorder, which may be frustrating to the person affected.
There is no cure for alien hand syndrome. Therapies and pharmacologic options for alien hand syndrome lack development, but scientists are working on treatments to reduce symptoms. People who have alien hand syndrome after brain illness or a stroke may recover after some time.
However, recovery is less successful for people with neurodegenerative diseases. The condition may be treated or managed using muscle control therapies such as botulinum toxin Botox and neuromuscular blocking agents. Benzodiazepines have been successful in some cases, but behavioral techniques seem to be more beneficial. Mirror box therapy, cognitive therapy techniques, and learning task behavioral therapies can help manage symptoms.
Visuospatial coaching techniques may also help. Sometimes the individual will try to restrain their alien hand by holding it under between their legs or sitting on it. It may help for the individual with alien hand syndrome or another person to give verbal commands to stop the actions.
However, this method may not provide long-lasting results. A doctor may recommend physical and occupational therapies.
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