Objective: To compare the speech Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients with and without deep brain stimulation.

Background: Among the many changes, the presence of dysarthria, characterized by limited extension movements, rigidity and tremor at rest, is frequent, and its prevalence in individuals with PD varies between 75% and 92 % as a result of different stages of disease. The most common symptoms of dysarthria found in PD are the reduction of vocal intensity monotonous voice, change intonation, limited modulation, speech rate changed, hoarse breathy voice quality, reduced frequency range, and articulatory accuracy. The negative impact on communication increases considerably making it highly impaired. Among the benefits brought about by stimulating cited were improvements in bradykinesia rigidity and tremor, and also in motor fluctuations. However, some adverse effects are reported as worsening dysarthria.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional, quantitative and observational study involving 16 patients, eight with ECP (Surgical Group – CG) and eight without ECP (Non-Surgical Group – CNG), paired according to sex, age, education and diagnosis time disease. The characteristics of speech were analyzed by Dysarthrias Assessment protocol of Central Origin in Patients with Parkinson’s disease adapted to the Portuguese language by Fracassi et al (2011) – modified, composed of tasks that assess breathing, phonation, resonance, articulation and prosody, shot and subsequently evaluated by three speech therapies blind judges for surgery factor, and application of QVV protocol and UPDRS (item 5 and 18).

Results: In relation to motor bases of speech there were no significant differences between groups. For self-perception held by QVV, significant changes were observed between the groups for the physical domain (p=0,002) and total (p=0,021) domain. In comparing the UPDRS items marked as perception of the evaluator, there was no significant change between the surgical and non-surgical group for items 5 (0,229) of section activities of daily living and motor function section 18 (p = 0,223).

Conclusions: Patients who received surgery self-reported improvement in quality of life in voice as compared to CNG, although clinically changes in speech motor bases have not been found in the comparison between the two groups.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/comparing-the-characteristics-of-patients-with-parkinsons-disease-speech-with-and-without-deep-brain-stimulation/