Description:
<jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title><jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>The high prevalence of mood disorders in cervical dystonia, often unaddressed in botulinum toxin clinics, is a major factor in impaired quality of life. There is a clear need for a brief screening method for identifying these disorders; the Dystonia non‐motor symptoms questionnaire (DNMSQuest) has been proposed as such.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Objective</jats:title><jats:p>We aimed to assess the practical utility of the DNMSQuest and compare it with validated rating scales for anxiety, depression and quality of life.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>In 88 patients with cervical dystonia, we compared results from the DNMSQuest with mood rating scales [Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Index (BDI‐II) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS)], quality of life measures [European Quality of Life (EQOL) and European Quality of Life Visual Analogue Scale (EQOLVAS)] and with assessments of dystonia severity [Cervical Dystonia Impact Profile‐58 (CDIP58) and Toronto Western Rating Scale for Spasmodic Torticollis (TWSTRS)].</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>Using a cut off score on the DNMSQuest of 5, we noted that DNMSQuest had a sensitivity of 85% for detecting anxiety and depression using the BAI and BDI‐II, and 76% and 78% for anxiety and depression respectively using the HADS. The DNMSQuest correlated strongly with BAI (ρ = 0.715), BDI‐II (ρ = 0.658), HADS‐Anxiety (ρ = 0.616), HADS‐Depression (ρ = 0.706), EQOL (ρ = 0.653) and CDIP‐58 (ρ = 0.665).</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title><jats:p>The DNMSQuest is a brief, sensitive and non‐specific instrument for identifying patients that warrant further review for anxiety and depression and can easily be implemented in a neurologist‐run botulinum toxin clinic.</jats:p></jats:sec>