Botulinum Toxin Benefits Many PSP Patients With Dystonia

For patients with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), botulinum toxin A injections relieve disabling blepharospasm and neck and hand dystonia, a relatively large retrospective study shows. About three quarters of patients with PSP actually developed dystonia during the treatment.

“The best benefit [was in] patients with blepharospasm — about 80% of patients with blepharospasm had benefit. When you look at the neck dystonia, it’s about 70% had benefit, less in orofacial dystonia hand dystonia,” Diana Apetauerová, MD, director of the Movement Disorders Program at the Lahey Health and Medical Center in Burlington, Massachusetts, told Medscape Medical News here at the 22rd Meeting of the European Neurological Society (ENS).

During a 14-year period, researchers identified 67 patients with PSP in the medical center’s movement disorder clinic. Of the 67, 49 (73%) had at least 1 form of dystonia. The mean age was 77 years and the mean duration of PSP was 6.7 years.

Read the Full article at http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/806471?nlid=31779_1301&src=wnl_edit_dail&uac=146330HN

Source:  by Daniel M. Keller PhD for Medscape Medical News, June 18 at http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/806471?nlid=31779_1301&src=wnl_edit_dail&uac=146330HN