Non-Motor Manifestations in Idiopathic Dystonia with Focal Onset – A Pilot Study
Authors: Bajenaru Ovidiu-Lucian ,   Department of Clinical Neurosciences, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania,   “Ana Aslan” National Institute of Geriatrics and Gerontology, Bucharest, Romania, Popescu-Olaru Iulia ,   Department of Clinical Neurosciences, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania,   Department of Neurology, clinical Hospital Colentina, Bucharest, Romania,   Iulia Popescu-Olaru, MD Department of Neurology, Clinical Hospital Colentina Bucharest, 19-21 Stefan cel Mare Street, 2nd district, 021155, Bucharest, Romania; Phone: +40743080180; E-mail: yulya_olaru@yahoo.com, Dumitrescu Laura ,   Department of Clinical Neurosciences, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania,   Department of Neurology, clinical Hospital Colentina, Bucharest, Romania, Serban Elena ,   Department of Clinical Neurosciences, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania, Cozma Liviu ,   Department of Clinical Neurosciences, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania,   Department of Neurology, clinical Hospital Colentina, Bucharest, Romania, Raicu Florina ,   Department of Medical Genetics, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania, Cocos Relu ,   Department of Medical Genetics, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania, Bogdan Popescu Ovidiu ,   Department of Clinical Neurosciences, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania,   Department of Neurology, clinical Hospital Colentina, Bucharest, Romania,   Laboratory of Molecular Biology, “Victor Babes” National Institute of Pathology, Bucharest, Romania
Published: November 2022

Recent studies emphasize an increased prevalence of non-motor symptoms in idiopathic dystonia with focal onset (IDFO), but their pathophysiological relationship is not clear.
We aimed to identify the prevalence of depression and neurocognitive impairment in a group of patients with idiopathic dystonia with focal onset and their impact on the patients’ quality of life.
This study represents a component of an ongoing research project – GENDYS. From the database of this project, we selected 48 patients 56.62+/-14.16 years old who have been examined clinically and using specific scales: Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (for depression), Montreal Cognitive Assessment - MoCA (for cognitive impairment), and a 5-degree analog scale for subjective perception of the severity of the disease. We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study on patients with depression and cognition evaluated by the above-mentioned scales. We also performed a nested case-control analysis on 20 IDFO patients with and without at least moderate depression matched for age and gender; the cut-offs for depression were PHQ-9 score ≥10 and PHQ9 <5, for the depression group and the control group, respectively. The cut-off for MoCA was 26 points. 22 IDFO patients (46%) had depression; 54.5% of IDFO patients with depression had cognitive impairment, indicating a slight trend of increased cognitive impairment in those with depression compared to those without; the perception of the severity of disease was the greatest in patients with depression.
Depression is more prevalent in patients with IDFO and is associated with a worse perception of the disease severity.