Abstract
The seventh cranial nerve spasms of the face and the eyelids, including essential blepharospasm, are usually intractable and sometimes disabling. Deanol acetamido-benzoate was compared with the anticholinergic orphenadrine for relief of these spasms. Deanol cured two of 16 (12%) subjects and improved a third. Orphenadrine was much more effective, improving the conditions of 16 of 26 (62%) subjects between 57% and 100%. A crossover double-blind experiment showed high significance over a placebo.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Ehni
G
Waltman
HW
: Hemifacial spasm . Arch Neurol Psychiatr
53 :205 –211 , 1945 .
2.
Jannetta
PJ
Abbasy
M
Maroon
JC
: Etiology and definitive microsurgical treatment of hemifacial spasm . J Neurosurg
47 :321 –328 , 1977 .
3.
McCabe
BF
Boles
R
: Management of hyperfunction of facial nerve . Ann Otol
79 :252 –258 , 1970 .
4.
Cavenar
JO
Brantley
IS
Braasch
E
: Blepharospasm—Organic or functional? . Psychosomatics
19 :623 –628 , 1978 .
5.
Weingarten
CZ
Putterman
AM
: Management of patients with essential belpharospasm . Eye Ear Nose Throat Mon
55 :183 –190 , 1976 .
6.
Miller
E
: Dimethylaminoethanol in the treatment of blepharospasm . N Engl J Med
289 :699 , 1973 .
7.
Dahdaleh
MP
Small
M
Thomas
DJ
: Dimethylaminoethanol in blepharospasm and hemifacial spasm . N Engl J Med
293 :697 , 1973 .
8.
Merikangas
JR
Reynolds
CF
: Blepharospasm. Successful treatment with chlorazepam . Ann Neurol
5 :401 –402 , 1979 .
9.
Casey
DE
: Deanol in the management of involuntary movement disorders: A review . Dis Nerv Syst
38 (sec 2):7 –16 , 1977 .
10.
Cailliet
R
: Clinical value of orphenadrine citrate (Norflex®) as a skeletal muscle relaxant . Clin Med
67 :1581 –1584 , 1960 .
11.
Cohen
EL
Wurtman
RJ
: Brain acetylcholine: Control by dietary choline . Science
191 :561 –562 , 1976 .
12.
Goldberg
AM
: Is deanol a precursor of acetylcholine? . Dis Nerv Syst
38 (sec 2):16 –20 , 1977 .
13.
Bejlsma
JG
Harms
AF
Funcke
AB
: Pharmacology of beta-dimethylaminoethyl-2-methyl benzhydryl ether HCl . Arch Int Pharmacodyn Ther
106 :332 , 1956 .
14.
Goodman
L
Gilman
A
: Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics , ed 5.
New York , Macmillan Co , 1975 , p 239ff .
15.
Ginzel
KH
: Blockade of reticular and spinal facilitation of motor function by orphenadrine . J Pharmacol Exp Ther
154 :128 –141 , 1966 .