Objectives Cervical dystonia (CD) is known to be associated with depression and low quality of life (QoL) but we know little about these measures in non-CD patients attending botulinum toxin clinics. The objective was to evaluate the prevalence of depression and low QoL in both CD and nonCD patients.

Design Cross-sectional pilot study.

Subjects Consecutive patients attending teaching hospital botulinum toxin clinic.

Methods Patients completed the Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI) questionnaire and a Recovering Quality of Life (ReQoL) scale. BDI and ReQoL scores of ≥17 and≤24 indicated depression and impaired QoL respectively.

Results 48 patients (30 female; age 45–75 years) were evaluated; 33:15 CD:non-CD. The non-CD group comprised hemifacial spasm, upper limb dystonia/tremor, blepharospasm and Meige syndrome. 23% (11/48) of all patients had depression: 27% (9/33) of CD and 13% (2/15) of non-CD. Depression rates were more frequent amongst females and males (27%; 17%) (p=0.43). 34% of all patients had low QoL – 36% (12/33) and 27% (4/15) in the CD and non-CD groups respectively (p=0.51). Low QoL scores were more frequent in females (40%) than males (22%) but this difference was not significant (p=0.21).

Conclusions Depression and low quality of life were common in all patients in this pilot study. This suggests that screening of all patients attending botulinum toxin clinics, regardless of their diagnosis, may be clinically important. A larger study is required to validate these findings.