ArticleMovement disorders clinical practice2026
How Do Oral Medications, Botulinum Toxin Use, and Treatment Burden Change after Deep Brain Stimulation for Dystonia?
Article in Movement disorders clinical practice, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDeep brain stimulation (DBS) is an established therapy for dystonia; however, the long-term trajectory of adjunctive treatment burden, including oral medications and botulinum toxin (BoNT) injections, and the likelihood of achieving medication-free status remain poorly understood, despite important implications for adverse effects, injection burden, and quality of life.
objectiveDetermine long-term changes in adjunctive medication burden and the durability of medication-free status among dystonia patients undergoing DBS.
methodsWe retrospectively examined the proportion of dystonia patients requiring oral medications and BoNT therapy after DBS, tracking postoperative changes at 6 months, 1, 3, 5, and 10 years. Factors influencing overall medication burden were evaluated, and the proportion of patients achieving treatment-free status was determined.
resultsAmong 100 patients in this cohort (56% generalized dystonia), baseline use of oral medications and BoNT was 85% and 43%, respectively. The proportion requiring oral medications and BoNT declined to ~60% and ~ 20-25% as DBS benefits emerged, with reductions maintained throughout follow-up. Among those continuing BoNT, dosing remained largely unchanged. The overall medication burden score, calculated by combining oral medications and BoNT, was significantly reduced at all follow-up intervals, with body distribution influencing the magnitude of reduction. Around one-third of patients did not require any medications at 10-year follow-up.
conclusionDBS leads to sustained reductions in adjunctive oral medications and BoNT use. At 10-year follow-up, around 20% of dystonia patients continued to require BoNT injections, but 30% were completely medication-free. These data highlight evolving long-term benefits and inform patient expectations.
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.