Objective: Our aim was to assess the prevalence and severity of mood disorder in our Cervical Dystonia population attending the botulinum toxin clinic and to their effect on quality-of-life.

Background: Non-motor symptoms, such as anxiety and depression are prominent in Cervical Dystonia and can affect quality-of-life, despite therapy of motor symptoms with botulinum-toxin.

Methods: We prospectively collected data on anxiety, depression measures in patients with cervical dystonia attending clinic. Health related quality-of-life (HrQoL) was assessed using the Cervical Dystonia Impact Profile–58 (CDIP-58); mood disorder was assessed using the Beck-Anxiety-Index (BAI-II), Beck-Depression-Index (BDI); Dystonia severity was assessed using the TWSTRS-2 severity-scale and pain-scale.

Results: 70 patients with cervical dystonia were surveyed; 28/70(40%) reported anxiety using the BAI. 66 patients who completed the BDI-II, 30(45%) reported depression ; 18/66(27%) had scores indicating moderate-to-severe depression. 40/70(57%) patients reported depression and/or anxiety. A weakly significant correlation between anxiety and the TWSTRS pain scale (R2 = 0.163; p = 0.0006) but no correlation with the TWSTRS–2 severity scale (R2 = 0.024; p = 0.2 . Similarly depression correlated weakly with the TWSTRS pain scale (R2 = 0.151; p = 0.001)but no correlation with the TWSTRS–2 severity scale (R2 = 0.009; p = 0.44).

Conclusions: Findings of (57%) patients with cervical dystonia have concurrent anxiety and/or depression. The lack of correlation with disease severity, and low correlation with pain suggests non-motor symptoms may have pathogenic mechanisms unrelated to motor-disorder.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/prevalence-and-correlates-of-anxiety-depression-in-cervical-dystonia/