Background and Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic triggered significant delays in the treatment of people with movement disorders who depend on face-to-face clinic encounters for receipt of their regular botulinum toxin injections. Against this background, it was the aim of this study to look into pandemic-related characteristics of patients with dystonia and hemifacial spasm treated with botulinum toxin at a tertiary centre in Romania and identify potential correlations between delays in treatment and health perceptions.
Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based, study was conducted between May-September 2021 on the 175 patients in the centre’s botulinum toxin database.
Results: Of the 90 patients who qualified for inclusion most were late middle-aged females with long-standing dystonia, of which torticollis and blepharospasm were the most common phenotypes. Treatment was delayed by an average of 8.5 months, whereas the overall quality-of-life health score was 61.1, with 60% of respondents rating themselves above 50. No statistically significant correlation was identified between delays in treatment and overall healthscores. Instead, statistically significant differences were uncovered based on type of disorder (dystonia vs. hemifacial spasm).
Conclusion: The results of this study may go on to show that, in the event of similar pandemic surges, patient micromanagement by type of disorder may be part of a well-balanced restriction-cum-access health policy.

The life-span increase recorded during the past decades across the global population has led to an increase in the number of people suffering from dementia. Recent analyses have estimated the worldwide number of people living with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and dementia at between 27 million and 36 million, and projections by Alzheimer’s disease International estimate that 115 million people worldwide will be living with AD/dementia by 2050, less developed countries being more affected by these rising numbers(1). Alzheimer’s disease is the most prevalent form of dementia - 60-70% cases, while vascular dementia accounts for another 25% of cases(2). Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative pathology associated with the intraneuronal accumulation of hyperphosphorylated proteins and with the extracellular aggregation of ? amyloid precursors(3). These structural modifications lead to a metabolic cascade responsible for neuronal death and, subsequently, dementia.