Seventh nerve spasm: effect of modification of cholinergic balance.

The seventh cranial nerve spasms of the face and the eyelids, including essential blepharospasm, are usually intractable and sometimes disabling. Deanol acetamidobenzoate 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.