How does botulinum toxin A compare with placebo in people with cervical dystonia?

Abstract

Moderate‐quality evidence shows that botulinum toxin A in adults with moderate to severe impairment due to cervical dystonia leads to a large improvement in cervical dystonia and a moderate improvement in pain. Duration of effect and quality of life were inconsistently reported across trials, but there seemed to be an improvement in quality of life.Overall adverse events were more common with botulinum toxin A (on average, 545 vs 459 per 1000 people); when assessing specific events, more people experienced dysphagia (82 vs 27 per 1000 people) and diffuse weakness/tiredness with botulinum toxin A than with placebo (32 vs 18 per 1000 people).