Lisuride treatment of focal dystonias

Nine patients with various focal dystonias participated in a 12-week, double-blind, crossover comparison of the dopamine agonist, lisuride, and placebo. Lisuride produced mild objective and subjective improvement in six subjects, but the improvement was not sustained with continued therapy. Because the patients generally identified the active drug by side effects, biasing the study toward finding an effect, and because the benefits were mild and transient, we conclude that lisuride is of limited use in the treatment of focal dystonias.