SAN FRANCISCO — In a small subset of Parkinson’s disease patients, deep brain stimulation is linked to statistically and clinically significant cognitive declines.
A new study in Parkinsonism & Related Disorders examined the association between multidomain cognitive decline (MCD) and demographic and baseline clinical variables and the incidence of serious adverse events (SAE) arising within a six-month interval following DBS for PD.1
The study, led by researchers from the San Francisco VAMC and the University of California, San Francisco, compared 18 study participants with PD who displayed MCD at six-month follow-up evaluation after DBS with 146 PD patients from the same study who did not show cognitive decline after DBS.
Results indicated that MCD showed modest association with older age and lower baseline neurocognitive screening performance, although the groups did not differ on most other baseline clinical and demographic variables.
The most useful predictor of MCD in the DBS group was determined to be serious adverse events. “A variety of SAEs were documented in study participants experiencing MCD after DBS surgery, including, but not limited to, infections and small intracranial hemorrhages,” the authors wrote.
Researchers concluded that older age and lower baseline cognition measured prior to treatment are associated with MCD measured at six-months after DBS. Also, predictive was SAE occurring following DBS surgery.
“These predictors may reflect aspects of ‘frailty’ in advanced PD,” the authors advised. “Risk factors for SAE warrant careful consideration in clinical trials.”
- Rothlind JC, York MK, Luo P, Carlson K, et. alredictors of multi-domain cognitive decline following DBS for treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2022 Feb;95:23-27. doi: 10.1016/j.parkreldis.2021.12.011. Epub 2021 Dec 18. PMID: 34974395.