Objective: Behaviour can change following deep brain stimulation (DBS) in patients with movement disorders. Underlying mechanisms are different activation of the brain target, changes in medication and psychosocial factors.

Background: The subthalamic nucleus (STN) is involved in the regulation of motor, cognitive and emotional behavior.

Methods: 63 patients with Parkinson’s disease (N=43), essential tremor (N=10) and dystonia (N=10) were evaluated following DBS. 37 patients (22 males, age 62±6 years) received electrodes into the STN. 26 patients (16 males, age 61±10 years) received electrodes into another target (internal globus pallisud (GPi), nucleus ventralis intermedius thalami (Vim)). We assessed questionnaire-based mental stress, aggression, anger, anxiety, sensation seeking behavior and personality 6-12 month after surgery in comparison to preoperative state. We used the Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R; Derogatis & Savitz 2000), a shortened version of revised NEO personality inventory (NEO-PI-R FIII; Mccrae & Costa 2004), two aggression/anger inventories including the Fragebogen zur Erfassung von Aggressivitätsfaktoren (FAF; Hampel & Selg 1998) and the State-Trait-Anger-Expression Inventory (STAXI; Spielberger 1988), the Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS; Hoyle et al. 2002) and the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ; Broadbent et al. 1982). Motor outcome, levodopa equivalent and depression scores were co-registered.

Results: All patients showed a trend to reduced mental stress after surgery. In detail anxiety was significantly decreased in both groups and additionally we saw a trend to reduced phobia in the STN group. The item “internal anger” which stands for the disposition to feel anger was significantly reduced in all patients but the item “external anger” presenting an adequate response to disagreeable situations remained unchanged. Also the anger control improved in the STN group significantly and by trend in the Non-STN group. No significant changes in personality and sensation seeking behavior were detected. There were also no significant changes for impulsivity and aggression except a reduced self-aggression/depression score for the Non-STN group.

Conclusions: The presented data prove that DBS in movement disorders has no negative influence on personality and behaviour per se. Moreover anger and anxiety were influenced positively and with more statistical power in the STN group.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/changes-in-mood-and-behavior-following-dbs-measurement-by-self-reported-questionaires/