DEEP BRAIN STIMULATION IMPACT ON PACIENTS WHO SUFFER FROM PARKINSON´S DISEASE

Abstract

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder derived from a reduction of dopamine production. The treatment of PD is basically by pharmacological measures. However, in the advanced stages of the disease, especially due to motor fluctuations, pharmacological treatment by itself is not completely successful. At that moment, the possibility of the patient´s benefits by the technique of deep brain stimulation (DBS) comes up. The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of pallidal or subthalamic DBS on PD patients' quality of life (QoL). To do so, two scales were employed, comparing the pre and post-operative results: Beck Depression Inventory - BDI (evaluates the patients' emotional aspects) and PDQ-39 (evaluates motor aspects and social relations). We could observe that BDI evaluation pointed to an average improvement of 9.5% and PDQ-39 scores improved 10.28%. We may conclude that patients who have undergone the technique of subthalamic or pallidal DBS showed an important improvement on QoL. DBS comes up as a great adjuvant in the fight against Parkinson's disease.