Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Jan;5(1):23-41.
doi: 10.1177/1756285611423412.

Nonmotor outcomes in Parkinson's disease: is deep brain stimulation better than dopamine replacement therapy?

Rupam Borgohain, Rukmini Mridula Kandadai, Afshan Jabeen, Meena A Kannikannan

Nonmotor outcomes in Parkinson's disease: is deep brain stimulation better than dopamine replacement therapy?

Rupam Borgohain et al. Ther Adv Neurol Disord. 2012 Jan.

Abstract

Nonmotor symptoms are an integral part of Parkinson's disease and cause significant morbidity. Pharmacological therapy helps alleviate the disease but produces nonmotor manifestations. While deep brain stimulation (DBS) has emerged as the treatment of choice for motor dysfunction, the effect on nonmotor symptoms is not well known. Compared with pharmacological therapy, bilateral subthalamic nucleus (STN)-DBS or globus pallidum interna (GPi)-DBS has significant beneficial effects on pain, sleep, gastrointestinal and urological symptoms. STN-DBS is associated with a mild worsening in verbal fluency while GPi-DBS has no effect on cognition. STN-DBS may improve cardiovascular autonomic disturbances by reducing the dose of dopaminergic drugs. Because the motor effects of STN-DBS and GPi-DBS appear to be similar, nonmotor symptoms may determine the target choice in surgery of future patients.

Keywords: Parkinson’s disease; deep brain stimulation; dopaminergic drugs; globus pallidum interna deep brain stimulation; nonmotor symptoms; pharmacological therapy; subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest in preparing this article.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Aarsland D., Larsen J.P., Lim N.G., Janvin C., Karlsen K., Tandberg E., et al. (1999) Range of neuropsychiatric disturbances in patients with Parkinson’s disease. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 67: 492–496 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Alberts J.L., Voelcker-Rehage C., Hallahan K., Vitek M., Bamzai R., Vitek J.L. (2008) Bilateral subthalamic stimulation impairs cognitive-motor performance in Parkinson’s disease patients. Brain 131: 3348–3360 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Allen R.P., Earley C.J. (1996) Augmentation of the restless legs syndrome with carbidopa/levodopa. Sleep 19: 205–213 - PubMed
    1. Amara A.W., Watts R.L., Walker H.C. (2011) The effects of deep brain stimulation on sleep in Parkinson’s disease. Ther Adv Neurol Disord 4: 15–24 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Angyán L. (1994) Somatomotor and cardiorespiratory responses to basal ganglia stimulation in cats. Physiol Behav 56: 167–173 - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources