Objective: To assess how patients with cervical dystonia (CD) rate their current lifestyle within several domains compared to healthy controls and to study their attitude towards the potential use of lifestyle medicine as additional treatment option.

Background: CD patients often experience non-motor symptoms (NMS) such as depression, anxiety, pain, insomnia, and fatigue. An increasing body of evidence shows that these symptoms notably influence quality of life. Current available treatment options such as botulinum toxin, medication, and deep brain stimulation, focus on improvement of motor symptoms. There is only scarce literature on the treatment of NMS in CD patients. A possible complicating factor is that many patients report the presence of multiple of these symptoms, calling for a more holistic treatment approach, such as seen in lifestyle medicine.

Method: A digital questionnaire was conducted among CD patients and healthy age- and gender matched controls. All participants filled out the Dystonia Non-Motor Symptoms Questionnaire (DNMSQuest), were asked to rate their own lifestyle within several domains on 5-point Likert scales and were questioned about their attitude regarding lifestyle medicine.

Results: Eighty-five patients and 97 controls participated in the questionnaire. Patients reported a significantly higher number of NMS compared to controls as rated on the DNMSQuest scale. The most frequently reported NMS was pain. Patients reported more stress and rated their sleep quality, satisfaction with their overall fitness, diet, and social contacts as significantly lower than healthy controls. Regarding their attitude towards the use of lifestyle medicine, most patients (60/85, 71%) considered it a potentially beneficial addition to the regular dystonia treatment options. Important positive reasons for them were that a lifestyle medicine program could contribute to better coping with their dystonia in daily life, and that it could contribute to stress and anxiety reduction. The prevailing reason for patients to report negatively towards lifestyle medicine was that they did not see a requirement for it within the current range of treatment options.

Conclusion: The most predominant NMS in CD patients was pain. CD patients reported higher stress levels, worse sleep quality and less satisfaction with their overall fitness, diet, and social contacts than healthy controls, potentially introducing a new treatment perspective.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/lifestyle-medicine-for-cervical-dystonia-a-new-view-on-treatment/