Neuropsychological Issues in Deep Brain Stimulation of Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders

The past decade has seen an explosion in the number of medically refractory conditions and neuroanatomical structures targeted for DBS treatment. While a review of the literature and meta-analyses indicate DBS for movement disorders to be safe from a neurobehavioral standpoint it is also clear that a small subset of patients have experienced moderate or severe neurobehavioral morbidity. If one combines the various cognitive and psychiatric morbidities reported across studies, approximately 10% of patients with PD undergoing DBS have experienced one or another neurobehavioral adverse events. Furthermore, several small studies have indicated that improvements in motor symptoms and quality of life (QOL) may not necessarily translate into social readjustment. A greater role for ancillary health services, such as speech therapy, occupational and physical therapy, neuropsychology, and psychotherapy needs to be contemplated. Health care providers should not rely on subjective impression or spontaneous patient report to identify neurobehavioral and psychosocial issues. Recent consensus statements on patient selection, treatment, and outcome evaluation should facilitate greater uniformity in outcome reporting and identification of neurobehavioral risk.