Clinical Trials

This collaborative, international effort has two primary goals. The first is to create a biospecimen repository and associated clinical database to be used as a resource for dystonia and related disease research. The second goal is to create and validate various rating scales for focal dystonias to be used during a typical clinical examination. Across sites, the investigators hope to enroll at least 5,000 adult patients. Subjects of this study will be asked to complete a neurological exam which will be videotaped, complete some questionnaires, and donate a blood sample. Subjects with laryngeal dystonia and voice disorders will also be asked to have a transnasal laryngoscopy (an exam of the voice box) where the subject has a flexible tube passed through their nose and into the throat to view the throat and voice box. A study visit will take between 45 minutes and 4 hours depending upon which portions of the study a subject completes. A subset of subjects will be asked to return annually for a one hour visit.

In this study, the investigators will monitor extracellular neurotransmitter levels using a probe that is able to perform real time electrochemical detection during deep brain stimulation surgery. The overall question this study is designed to answer is: Are there neurotransmitters released during deep brain stimulation?