Experimental treatment could ease ‘misunderstood’ dementia symptom

Toronto neurologist Dr. Galit Kleiner has spent nearly two decades studying a movement disorder that causes uncontrollable muscle stiffness and pain in nearly all of her patients with advanced dementia. Despite how common it appears to be, she says the condition and new possibilities for treatment have gone largely unrecognized. “It’s been a very difficult climb,” said the movement disorder specialist at Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Health. “There’s been a kind of inertia and nihilism around this population, where suffering is seen as almost inevitable and expected.” Kleiner is fighting to ch…