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Updated: May 9, 2026
Controlling Parkinson's Disease With Adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation
Published on: July 16, 2014
The MDS-UPDRS tracks motor and non-motor improvement due to subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation in Parkinson
Kelvin L Chou1, Jennifer L Taylor, Parag G Patil
1Surgical Therapies Improving Movement Program, University of Michigan, USA; Department of Neurology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Department of Neurosurgery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Background:
The Movement Disorders Society revision of the Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) improves upon the original UPDRS by adding more non-motor items, making it a more robust tool to evaluate the severity of motor and non-motor symptoms of Parkinson disease. Previous studies on deep brain stimulation have not used the MDS-UPDRS.
Objective:
To determine if the MDS-UPDRS could detect improvement in both motor and non-motor symptoms after bilateral subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation for Parkinson disease.
Methods:
We compared scores on the entire MDS-UPDRS prior to surgery (baseline) and approximately six months following the initial programming visit in twenty subjects (12M/8F) with Parkinson disease undergoing bilateral subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation.
Results:
STN DBS significantly improved the scores for every section of the MDS-UPDRS at the 6 month follow-up. Part I improved by 3.1 points (22%), Part II by 5.3 points (29%), Part III by 13.1 points (29%) with stimulation alone, and Part IV by 7.1 points (74%). Individual non-motor items in Part I that improved significantly were constipation, light-headedness, and fatigue.
Conclusions:
Both motor and non-motor symptoms, as assessed by the MDS-UPDRS, improve with bilateral subthalamic nucleus stimulation six months after the stimulator is turned on. We recommend that the MDS-UPDRS be utilized in future deep brain stimulation studies because of the advantage of detecting change in non-motor symptoms.
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