Description:
<jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>Cervical dystonia patients have a high prevalence of anxiety and depression which is the main predictor of quality of life. Reports of abnormal cognition in cervical dystonia may be confounded by concurrent mood disorder.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Aim</jats:title><jats:p>To assess the relationships between measures of cognition, mood disorder, disease severity, and quality of life in cervical dystonia.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>In 45 cervical dystonia partici- pants, we assessed clinical measures of disease severity, mood disorder using the Beck Anxiety Inventory and Beck Depression Inventory, quality of life by the Cervical Dystonia Impact Profile and Utility Values from the EQ-5D-5L and administered an extensive neuropsychological assessment battery. The outcomes of clinical and neuropsychological variables were compared between participants with and without signifi- cant mood disorder.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>Significant anxiety and/or depression were reported in 18 participants (40%); 27 participants (60%) had no prevalent anxiety or depression. Significant deficits in executive function were found in participants with mood disorder in comparison to those without mood disorder; otherwise neuropsychological testing showed no between-group abnormalities. Mood disorder significantly cor- related with measures of executive function and quality of life. Abnormal Social Cognition was found in cervical dystonia, unrelated to prevalent mood disorder.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title><jats:p>Mood disorder in cervical dystonia is a significant independent predictor of both measures of executive function and quality of life. Other than in Social Cognition, there was no evidence of any primary cognitive impairment in cervical dystonia.</jats:p><jats:p>mhutchin2@mac.com</jats:p></jats:sec>