Medical Expert - Allison Brashear, MD

Dr. Brashear is head of the spasticity clinic at Wake Forest Baptist and is a nationally known expert in the treatment of spasticity and other movement disorders, neuromuscular diseases, and Botulinum toxin. Brashear and colleagues conducted clinical trials showing Botox® (onabotulinumtoxinA) to be an effective treatment for the condition. It was the largest study to date to evaluate treatment with Botox for post-stroke spasticity, finding that one-time injections of Botox are safe and effective in people with wrist and finger spasticity after a stroke. Her research findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2002. A follow-up study published in the journal Neurology in 2004 demonstrated repeated benefits of the injections in patients with post-stroke spasticity. Her research contributed to the FDA’s 2010 approval of Botox to treat upper limb spasticity (excessive muscle tightness) following a stroke.

Brashear is the chair of the American Academy of Neurology/Movement Disorder Society Spasticity/Dystonia Advisory Board and directs courses at national workshops designed to teach the technique of botulinum toxin treatment. She has published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters on topics including the use of botulinum toxin for the treatment of dystonia and spasticity. Her 2002 publication, “Intramuscular Injection of Botulinum Toxin for the Treatment of Wrist and Finger Spasticity After a Stroke” in the New England Journal of Medicine demonstrated functional improvement in patients treated with botulinum toxin for post-stroke spasticity.

Brashear is the lead author on two pivotal papers on the use of botulinum toxin type B in cervical dystonia and spasticity and is the principal clinician to describe a unique genetic form of dystonia-parkinsonism, Rapid-Onset Dystonia-Parkinsonism (RDP). The gene responsible for RDP, mutations in the Na/K ATPase a3 subunit, was reported in Neuron in July 2004. Dr. Brashear’s work has appeared in such journals as Annals of Neurology, Neurology, Movement Disorders, Muscle and Nerve and others. Brashear is a frequent reviewer for these and other journals. She is listed in Best Doctors in America.

She has authored "Spasticity: Diagnosis and Management."