Executive functioning in patients with blepharospasm in comparison with patients with hemifacial spasm.

BACKGROUND Non-motor symptoms have been described in primary dystonia, but the results on cognitive impairment in this condition are discordant. Blepharospasm (BM) is a type of primary focal dystonia characterized by recurrent and involuntary eye blinking. Hemifacial spasm (HS), a condition with different pathophysiology, constitutes an adequate control group when investigating non-motor disturbances in BM. OBJECTIVE To compare the performance of patients with BM and HS in the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB). METHOD Twenty-two patients with BM and 29 patients with HS were submitted to the FAB and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). FAB scores were compared between the two groups. Correlations between FAB and sociodemographic and clinical variables were calculated. RESULTS BM group was not different from HS in relation to gender, age, length of symptoms, educational level and performance in the MMSE. FAB scores were also similar in both groups. FAB scores correlated negatively with age and positively with educational level and MMSE scores. CONCLUSION Executive functioning as assessed by FAB is not altered in BM in comparison with HS.