A 9-year-old girl with a rare genetic condition called FOXP1 syndrome had been banging her head severely since she was about 2 years old. Behavioral strategies and medications had not stopped it. Then her doctors prescribed levodopa/carbidopa, a long-standing Parkinson's disease drug, for a completely different reason: worsening problems in her feet.
Her headbanging improved right away, and the improvement held for more than 19 months.
