The Muddle of Myoclonus: Many Guises, 2 Disciplines, Consensus Needed.

Myoclonus is often approached in different ways by epileptologists and movement disorder specialists, leading to confusion in the literature. Multiplicity and inconsistency over the past 2 centuries resulted in a lack of precision and ambiguity of the terminology. We show that this is a current problem in which one phenomenon has been described with many terms and vice versa. Of more importance, we discuss the conceptualization of myoclonus from perspectives of both fields and focus on the borderland that exists, especially in the spectrum of cortical and epileptic myoclonus. By giving 2 examples, we illustrate the conundrum: the spectrum of progressive myoclonus epilepsies and progressive myoclonic ataxias and "cortical tremor" observed in familial cortical myoclonic tremor with epilepsy or familial adult myoclonic epilepsy. We attempt to facilitate to bridge these subspecialties and form the base for a uniform understanding to take this issue forward toward future classifications, discussions, and scientific research.

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Copyright © 2023 American Academy of Neurology.

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The authors S. Van Der Veen and M.A.J. Tijssen are members of the European Reference Network for Rare Neurologic Diseases–Project ID No 739510. S.F. Berkovic reports no relevant disclosures. Full disclosure form information provided by the authors is available with the full text of this article at Neurology.org/cp.