Objective: to research the clinical and neurological features, non-motor states and quality of life in CD patients.

Background: Cervical dystonia (CD) is a movement disorder of nervous system characterized by violent dystonic contractions of neck muscles. It could shape pathological poses of head and neck. The clinical manifestations of the disease are associated with a combination of motor and non-motor disorders.

Method: We observed 120 CD patients. The main group included 31 males (25.84%) and 89 females (74.16%). The average age was 54.4 + 12.4.  The control group was comprised of 50 patients with cervical dorsopathy: 16 males (32%) and 34 females (68%). The average age was 51.7 +  14.8. We have used the neuropsychological scales:  Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Scale of Asthenic State by L.D. Malkova, Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory, Epworth Sleepiness Scale, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey, Visual Analogue Scale of Pain.

Results: The clinical and neurological features were different but the prevailing poses in the observed CD patients were presented by torticollis and laterocollis. The predominant poses in CD patients were torticollis (48.9%) and laterocollis (37.2%). We have discovered that 16% patients had only CD symptoms and 84% had combinations CD and other hyperkinesis in the adjacent areas. 70 CD patients (58.3%) suffered from dystonic tremor of head or arm and 14 (11.6%) from myoclonus. 117 CD patients (97.5%) suffered from pain. 60% of observed CD group had a pulling kind of pain in the neck and the occipital head region. The most of the main group had asthenia – 108 patients (90%). Anxiety was presented in 77.5 % and depression affected 46.7% of CD patients. The 96 patients (80%) had poor sleep quality and 97 patients (81%) complained about  daytime sleepiness. The quality of life of СD patients is reduced in physical and psychological aspects (36.6 [31.3; 46.1] and 38.1 [32.5; 46.0] points, respectively). For the females, the rate was higher than for the males (р = 0.0042 and р = 0.0383, accordingly).

Conclusion: The analysis of non-motor symptoms of CD patients has shown its significant place in clinical picture of this disease. Since the incidence of non-motor symptoms is high, they reduce the quality of life. The treatment of CD patients requires a multimodal approach focused on the correction of both the dystonic hyperkinesis and the psychosomatic state.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/non-motor-symptoms-in-cervical-dystonia-patients/