Neuropsychiatric consequences of deep brain stimulation surgeries in the patients affected by chronic movement disorders: A brief report

Abstract

The main surgical procedure for PD and other chronic movement disorders is deep brain stimulation. DBS has been reported to have specific consequences such as decline in verbal fluency and episodes of depression.

We designed an interventional study in 12 patients affected by Parkinson, dystonia and tic who underwent DBS surgery. Patient assessed before surgery, one month and one year after surgery.

The results proved a significant improvement in SF36. The Hamilton's anxiety scale showed an overall but insignificant improvement. The mean of scores of the BDI had a great drop one month after surgery but a raise at the 12th month (insignificant pattern).

Pearson's correlation test showed a significant negative correlation between age and the SF36 scores. The BDI's scores were assessed in relation with age. Although there was no actual relation between them before surgery, we detected a positive correlation between them after one year.

Conclusion

The pattern of changes can be related with the differences between perioperative expectations and real long-term outcomes. Correlations between changes seen in BDI and SF36 scores with age can be considered as a confirmatory evidence for this idea.

All cases showed an insignificant gradual decline in digit span test, which may be independent of the surgical procedure. Although the COWA test could not prove a significant deterioration in verbal fluency but a slight decline after one year was obvious, in addition to one patient who turned aphasic during this period.

The outcomes showed that the benefits of DBS outweigh the slight risk of developing depression.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.