A Case with Improvement of Blepharospasm by Zolpidem

Zolpidem is usually used for the treatment of insomnia as a hypnotic drug. It was also suggested to be effective in the treatment of dystonia in some studies. A 74-year-old woman had been suffering from frequent and intense bilateral spasms of the eyelids for 20 years. She has been treated with botulinum toxin injection and taken some medications. But, she experienced a little effect and was not satisfied with those treatments. Her symptom was improved after taking Zolpidem which had been prescribed for insomnia by her primary physician. She did not show any improvement after placebo injection and neostigmine test. This is the first report which shows improvement of isolated blepharospasm by Zolpidem in Korea. Zolpidem can be one of useful alternative pharmacological treatments for blepharospasm. Further randomized, blinded, placebo-controlled studies are needed to validate this finding.