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Anxiety Severity Varies by Onset Site of Dystonia
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry; ePub 2017 Apr 24; Berman, et al
Anxiety and social anxiety severity vary by onset site of focal dystonia, and this variation is not explained by differences in pain and dystonia severity, according to a recent study.
Patients with isolated focal dystonia evaluated within 5 years from symptom onset who were enrolled in the Natural History Project of the Dystonia Coalition were included in the analysis; 478 subjects met the inclusion criteria. Individual onset sites were grouped into 5 body regions: cervical, laryngeal, limb, lower cranial, and upper cranial. Researchers found:
- High levels of depression, anxiety and social anxiety occurred in all groups; however, the severity of anxiety and social anxiety symptoms varied by onset site group.
- The most pronounced differences were higher anxiety in cervical and laryngeal, lower anxiety in upper cranial, and higher social anxiety in laryngeal.
- Increases in pain were associated with worse neuropsychiatric symptom scores within all groups.
- Higher anxiety and social anxiety in laryngeal and lower anxiety in upper cranial persisted after correcting for pain and dystonia severity.
Berman BD, Junker J, Shelton E, et al. Psychiatric associations of adult-onset focal dystonia phenotypes. [Published online ahead of print April 24, 2017]. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. doi:10.1136/jnnp-2016-315461.