Prevalence and temporal relationship of clinical co-morbidities in idiopathic dystonia: a UK linkage-based study

While motor and psychiatric phenotypes in idiopathic dystonia are increasingly well understood, a few studies have examined the rate, type, and temporal pattern of other clinical co-morbidities in dystonia. Here, we determine the rates of clinical diagnoses across 13 broad systems-based diagnostic groups, comparing an overall idiopathic dystonia cohort, and sub-cohorts of cervical dystonia, blepharospasm, and dystonic tremor, to a matched-control cohort. Using the SAIL databank, we undertook a longitudinal population-based cohort study (January 1st 1994–December 31st 2017) using anonymised electronic healthcare records for individuals living in Wales (UK), identifying those diagnosed with dystonia through use of a previously validated algorithm. Clinical co-morbid diagnoses were identified from primary health care records, with a 10