Although there are some newly-developed options to treat dystonia, its medical treatment is not always satisfactory. Zolpidem, an imidazopyridine agonist with a high affinity to benzodiazepine receptor subtype ω1, has been reported to improve clinical symptoms of dystonia in some cases. We conducted an open-label study to assess the efficacy of zolpidem in 34 patients with primary dystonia patients, The Burke Fahn Marsden Dystonia Rating Scale (BFMDRS) scores in the patients were decreased from 7.2±7.9 to 5.5±5.0 after zolpidem therapy (P=0.042). Next we evaluated 55 patients with primary and secondary dystonia, 16 of 55 patients (29%) responded to zolpidem, and secondary dystonia, particularly post-traumatic dystonia, was more responsive than primary dystonia (5 of 11 [46%] vs 11 of 44 [25%]). The efficacy of zolpidem was comparable to that of other oral medications in our previous study; 33 of 89 dystonia patients (37%) responded to trihexyphenidil, 13 of 53 (25%) responded to clonazepam, and 4 of 21 (19%) responded to baclofen. In conclusion, our large scale study suggested that zolpidem may be a therapeutic option for dystonia, particularly post-traumatic dystonia.
