Department of Family and Preventive Medicine (Dr. Jones) and Department of Neurology (Dr. Allred), University of Utah, Salt Lake City (Dr. Shprecher); Banner Sun Health Research Institute, Sun City, Ariz (Dr. Shprecher) kyle.jones@hsc.utah.edu
Drs. Jones and Allred reported no potential conflict of interest relevant to this article. Dr. Shprecher disclosed that he receives grant/research support from Lundbeck Inc., Teva Pharmaceuticals, and Neurocrine Biosciences; serves as a consultant to Lundbeck Inc. and Teva Pharmaceuticals; and serves on the speakers’ bureau of Lundbeck Inc. and Teva Pharmaceuticals.
Athletes who play sports that require precision movements commonly develop the yips. While the prevailing theory among athletes is that this is a psychological phenomenon, evidence shows that this may in fact be a neurologic focal dystonia caused by repetitive use. Greater awareness of yips as a possible organic, treatable neurologic condition is needed in order to stimulate more research on this topic.