Efficacy and Safety of Zolpidem for Musician's Dystonia

The efficacy and safety of zolpidem for treating musician's dystonia are not well understood. We aimed to retrospectively investigate the efficacy and safety of zolpidem for treating musician's dystonia. We retrospectively reviewed medical records between January 2021 and December 2023 to identify patients with musician's dystonia who had been prescribed zolpidem. Tubiana's Musician's Dystonia Rating Scale (range, 1-5; lower scores indicating greater severity) was used to evaluate musician's dystonia. Fifteen patients were included in this study. The mean effective dose of zolpidem was 5.3 ± 2.0 mg. The mean effective duration of zolpidem was 4.3 ± 1.2 h. With zolpidem administration, Tubiana's musician's dystonia rating scale score significantly improved from 2.2 ± 1.0 to 4.3 ± 0.8 (48.9% improvement, p < 0.001). Two patients (13.3%) discontinued the drug owing to unsatisfactory results or sleepiness. The results of this study suggest that zolpidem may be an alternative treatment option for musician's dystonia.