ArticleFrontiers in neurology2023
What is the effect of benzodiazepines on deep brain activity? A study in pediatric patients with dystonia.
Article in Frontiers in neurology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- Human and mouse cerebellar inhibitory circuits in dystonic crisis and their modulation with therapeutic stimulation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Intraoperative dexmedetomidine for prevention of postoperative delirium in pediatric patients after orthopedic surgery: a single-center retrospective study.BMC pediatrics · 2025Article
- Frequency-dependent modulation of evoked potentials during GPi-DBS in pediatric dystonia.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Brain network pathophysiology in dystonia.Dystonia (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Potentiation of the depressant effect of alcohol by flunitrazepam in rats: an electrocorticographic, respiratory and electrocardiographic study.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Introduction: Benzodiazepines (BDZs) are commonly used to treat the symptoms of movement disorders; however, deep brain stimulation (DBS) has become a popular treatment for these disorders. Previous studies have investigated the effects of BDZ on cortical activity, no data are currently available on their effects on deep brain regions, nor on these regions' responses to DBS. How the BDZ affects the thalamus and basal ganglia in dystonia patients remains unknown. Methods: DBS recordings were performed in ventral oralis anterior/posterior (VoaVop), ventral intermediate (VIM) and ventral anterior (VA) thalamic subnuclei, as well as globus pallidus interna (GPi) and subthalamic nucleus (STN). Evoked potentials (EP) and frequency domain analysis were performed to determine the BDZ effect on neural activities compared to the control condition (off-BDZ). Three male pediatric patients with dystonia treated with BDZ and undergoing depth electrode evaluation for clinical targeting were recruited for the study. Stimulation was administered at 25 and 55 Hz frequencies and recordings were simultaneously gathered through pairs of externalized stereoelectroencephalography (sEEG) electrodes. EP amplitude and the effect of stimulation on the frequency spectrum of activity were compared at baseline and following clinical administration of BDZ. Results: Frequency analysis showed consistent reductions in activity during BDZ treatment in all studied brain regions for all patients. Evoked potential (EP) analysis showed increased subthalamic nucleus (STN) EP amplitude and decreased ventral intermediate (VIM) and STN EP amplitude during BDZ treatment. Interpretation: BDZs reduce thalamic and basal ganglia activity in multiple regions and alter the efficacy of transmission between these regions. While the mechanism is unknown our results confirm the known widespread effects of this class of medications and identify specific areas within the motor system that are directly affected.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.