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Athetosis was first described by Hammond in 1871, who gave it the name because it was mainly characterized by an inability to retain the fingers and toes in any position in which they might be planed, as well as by their continuous motion.
The athetoid movements of the toes correspond to those of the fingers in point of action. The differential diagnosis of athetosis is generally easily made. The only nervous affections with which it could possibly be confounded are chorea and paralysis agitans.
According to Drewry "athetosis is a cerebral affection, presenting a combination of symptoms characterized chiefly by a more or less constant mobility of the extremities and an inability to retain them in any fixed position. These morbid, grotesque, involuntary movements are slow and wavy, somewhat regular and rigid, are not jerky, spasmodic, nor tremulous.
Following in the footsteps of many of those unfortunates afflicted with epilepsy, she degenerated into a state of almost absolute imbecility. "Some degree of mental deficiency seems usually to accompany athetosis, even when uncomplicated by any other degenerating neurosis.
This form of chorea is almost always a disease of childhood. So-called post-hemiplegic chorea is, in the opinion of both Hammond and Gray, simply athetosis. The silly, dancing, posturing, wiry movements, and the facial distortion observed in Huntington's chorea would hardly be mistaken by a careful observer for athetosis. The two diseases, however, are somewhat alike.
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