Neuropsychological profile of Parkinson's disease patients selected for deep brain stimulation surgery

Parkinson's disease (PD) shows symptoms involving motor and non-motor complications, including cognitive and behavioral changes, such changes might to contraindicate deep brain stimulation surgery (DBS).

The aim of study was to investigate the neuropsychological profile of patients with PD in a waiting list for DBS.

The neuropsychological evaluation was held in 30 patients of the ISCMPA Movement Disorders Clinic, with surgical indication based on the criteria of the responsible neurologists, in the period of 12 months. Instruments used: MMSE, FAB, MoCA, BDI, Semantic Verbal Fluency, PDQ-39, PDSS; and the UPDRS and Hoehn-Yahr scale.

The patients were mostly male (66.7%) with a mean age of 59.37 (SD 10.60) and disease duration 9.33 (SD 4.08). There was cognitive impairment in 56.7% of patients by FAB and 76.7% by MoCA.

Even in the earliest stages of the disease, there is the incidence of non-motor symptoms, especially in those subjects who had an early onset of the disease.