Personality Changes After Subthalamic Nucleus Stimulation in Parkinson’s Disease

Abstract

Background: While deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN-DBS) significantly improves motor deficits in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), it is still unclear whether it affects personality functioning. Objective: The objective of the present study was to examine personality changes in patients with PD after STN-DBS from the perspectives of both the patients and caregivers. Moreover, by assessing the premorbid personalities of the patients, we tried to determine individual vulnerability to STN-DBS-induced personality changes. Methods: In total, 27 patients and their caregivers participated in our retrospective observational study. They were asked to assess the patients’ personality changes with the Iowa Scale of Personality Changes (ISPC) and the patients’ premorbid personalities with the Big Five Inventory (BFI). Results: Caregivers reported significant personality changes in the ISPC domains of Executive Disturbance (p = 0.01) and Disturbed Social Behavior (p = 0.02). Most of the ISPC domains were positively correlated with Conscientiousness, while Executive Disturbance was negatively correlated with Neuroticism of the BFI scale. Conclusion: Our results show that executive and social functioning are the two most vulnerable domains in patients with PD after STN-DBS, especially in those patients who score higher for neuroticism and lower for conscientiousness on the BFI scale. The results of our study may provide movement disorder specialists with better counseling options and better selection of DBS candidates. Caregivers’ perspective might contribute significantly in understanding postoperative personality changes.

Gender discrepancies and differences in motor and non-motor symptoms, cognition, and psychological outcomes in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease with subthalamic deep brain stimulation

“…Another explanation would be that LEDD decreases more often in men after STN-DBS ( 24 ), which could be associate with improvement in ICD ( 66 ). Even though some studies suggest possible personality changes after STN-DBS ( 67 ), personality traits or anxiety do not appear to change in both genders ( 27 , 32 , 42 ). Regarding other non-motor symptoms, the evidence is not clear as to whether there is an overall improvement ( 24 , 26 ).…”