A 13-month-old boy presented with repeated episodes of tongue biting during sleep. On evaluation, he was found to have hereditary chin trembling, a rare autosomal dominant condition characterized by continuous or intermittent tremulous activity of the mentalis muscle. This is the first report of this kind from India. The tongue biting appeared to be the result of parasomnia. Treatment with clonazepam was very effective; it completely ameliorated the symptom of tongue biting but had no effect on chin trembling. (J Child Neurol 2006;21:985—987; DOI 10.2310/ 7010.2006.00220).
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Stocks P.: Facial spasm inherited through four generations. Biometrika1922;14:311—315.
2.
Goldsmith JB : The inheritance of ``facial spasm'' and the effect of a modifying factor associated with high temper. J Hered1927;18:185— 187.
3.
Grossman BJ: Trembling of the chin—an inheritable dominant character. Pediatrics1957;19:453—455.
4.
Wadlington WB : Familial trembling of the chin. J Pediatr1958;53: 316—321.
5.
Laurance BM, Matthews WB, Diggle JH: Hereditary quivering of the chin. Arch Dis Child1968;43:249—251.
6.
Johnson LF, Kinsbourne M., Renuart AW: Hereditary chin-trembling with nocturnal myoclonus and tongue biting in dizygotic twins. Dev Med Child Neurol1971;13:726—729.
7.
Rosenberg ML , Clark JB: Familial trembling of the chin. Neurology1987;37(Suppl 1):190.
8.
Blaw ME, Leroy RF, Steinberg JB, et al:Hereditary quivering chin and REM behavioral disorder. Ann Neurol1989;26:471.
9.
Alsager DE, Bowen P., Bamforth JS: Trembling chin—a report of this inheritable dominant character in a four-generation Canadian family. Clin Genet1991;40:186—189.
Gordon K., Cadera W., Hinton G.: Successful treatment of hereditary chin trembling with botulinum toxin. J Child Neurol1993;8:154—156.
12.
Soland VL, Bhatia KP, Sheean GL, et al:Hereditary geniospasm. Two new families. Mov Disord1996;11:744—746.
13.
Jarman PR, Wood NW, Davis MT, et al:Hereditary geniospasm: Linkage to chromosome 9q13-q21 and evidence for genetic heterogeneity. Am J Hum Genet1997;61:928—933.
14.
Destee A., Cassim F., Defebvre L., Guieu JD: Hereditary chin trembling or hereditary chin myoclonus? J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry1997; 63:804—807.
15.
Bakar M., Zarifoglu M., Bora I., et al:Treatment of hereditary chin trembling with botulinum toxin. Mov Disord1998;13:845—846.
16.
Grimes DA, Han F., Bulman D., et al:Hereditary chin trembling: A new family with exclusion of the chromosome 9q13-q21 locus. Mov Disord2002;17:1390—1392.
17.
Diaz S., Scorticati MC, Micheli F.: Hereditary chin tremor/myoclonus: A report from Latin America. Mov Disord1999;14:180—182.
18.
Vasiknanonte P., Kuasirikul S., Vasiknanonte S.: Two faces of nocturnal tongue biting. J Med Assoc Thai1997;80:500—507.
19.
Sheldon SH: Parasomnia in childhood. Pediatr Clin North Am2004; 51:69—88.
20.
Kimura Y., Muranaka H., Kojima T., et al:Recurrent tongue biting due to hypnic myoclonia in infancy. No To Hattatsu2000;32:358—362.
21.
Tuxhorn I., Hoppe M.: Parasomnia with rhythmic movements manifesting as nocturnal tongue biting . Neuropediatrics1993;24: 167—168.
22.
Kohyama J., Matsukura F., Kimura K., et al:Rhythmic movement disorder: Polysomnographic study and summary of reported cases. Brain Dev2002;24:33—38.
23.
Gaggero R., Devescovi R., Nobili L., et al:Benign parasomnia and nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy: Differential diagnosis in a case report. J Child Neurol2001;16:628—631.
24.
Ptácek LJ, Fu J-H.: Channels and disease. Past, present, and future. Arch Neurol2004;61:1665—1668.
25.
Margari L., Presicci A., Ventura P., et al: Channelopathy: Hypothesis of a common pathophysiologic mechanism in different forms of paroxysmal dyskinesias. Pediatr Neurol2005;32:229—235.
