About this Research Topic
When the success of botulinum toxin (BoNT) began within the field of neurology, movement disorders specialists were predominantly involved in using this option, due to its indications in cervical dystonia, hemifacial spasm and blepharospasm. Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the pivotal disorders in the field of movement disorders and thus automatically provoked interest in examining BoNT as a treatment regimen. However, this development was unexpectedly rather slowly evolving. Two indications were accepted for its initial approval and even then, PD was seen as merely a relevant subgroup within these two indications: detrusor overactivity and sialorrhea. A few others were also included although they had only been partly examined in controlled studies, such as cervical dystonia, focal dystonia, blepharospasm, camptocormia, and freezing of gait.
Therapy with the help of botulinum toxin has been celebrating a true success story for over 30 years now. Quite possibly we just might break new ground in using BoNT in PD, not just for problems with the bladder and salivary glands but quite broadly with movement disorders as a whole, with rigor, tremor, dystonia, dyskinesia, and other aspects. At present the incidence of PD is clearly on the increase and many symptoms are not yet treated amenably to adequately. Perhaps we might just make enough real progress so as to close some of our gaps in knowledge and better inform general practitioners and Parkinson experts on the indications already approved: Both the current status and the future prospects are our goal here.
This Research Topic aims to provide a current update on BoNT and hopefully initiate more progress. It will be a collection of articles which examines any number of possible indications regardless of whether they have achieved approval status or even if they are just a matter of pure hypothetical future use. It will include the current status of our data and expert opinions. Our goal is to publish state of the art information on potential indications of BoNT as well as to open a gateway to novel approaches.
Therapy with the help of botulinum toxin has been celebrating a true success story for over 30 years now. Quite possibly we just might break new ground in using BoNT in PD, not just for problems with the bladder and salivary glands but quite broadly with movement disorders as a whole, with rigor, tremor, dystonia, dyskinesia, and other aspects. At present the incidence of PD is clearly on the increase and many symptoms are not yet treated amenably to adequately. Perhaps we might just make enough real progress so as to close some of our gaps in knowledge and better inform general practitioners and Parkinson experts on the indications already approved: Both the current status and the future prospects are our goal here.
This Research Topic aims to provide a current update on BoNT and hopefully initiate more progress. It will be a collection of articles which examines any number of possible indications regardless of whether they have achieved approval status or even if they are just a matter of pure hypothetical future use. It will include the current status of our data and expert opinions. Our goal is to publish state of the art information on potential indications of BoNT as well as to open a gateway to novel approaches.
Keywords: Parkinson's, therapy, movement disorder, botulinum toxin, botox
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