Article Text
Abstract
Background: Primary focal dystonia (PFD) is characterised by motor symptoms. Frequent co-occurrence of abnormal mental conditions has been mentioned for decades but is less well defined. In this study, prevalence rates of psychiatric disorders, personality disorders and traits in a large cohort of patients with PFD were evaluated.
Methods: Prevalence rates of clinical psychiatric diagnoses in 86 PFD patients were compared with a population based sample (n = 3943) using a multiple regression approach. Furthermore, participants were evaluated for personality traits with the 5 Factor Personality Inventory.
Results: Lifetime prevalence for any psychiatric or personality disorder was 70.9%. More specifically, axis I disorders occurred at a 4.5-fold increased chance. Highest odds ratios were found for social phobia (OR 21.6), agoraphobia (OR 16.7) and panic disorder (OR 11.5). Furthermore, an increased prevalence rate of 32.6% for anxious personality disorders comprising obsessive–compulsive (22.1%) and avoidant personality disorders (16.3%) were found. Except for social phobia, psychiatric disorders manifested prior to the occurrence of dystonia symptoms. In the self-rating of personality traits, PFD patients demonstrated pronounced agreeableness, conscientiousness and reduced openness.
Conclusions: Patients with PFD show distinct neuropsychiatric and personality profiles of the anxiety spectrum. PFD should therefore be viewed as a neuropsychiatric disorder rather than a pure movement disorder.
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Footnotes
▸ Supplementary material is published online only at http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/vol80/issue10
Competing interests None.
Ethics approval The study was approved by the local ethics committees.
Provenance and Peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.