Fear and Depression as Side Effect of Deep Brain Stimulation of the Subthalmic Nucleus in Parkinson's Disease

For the treatment of advanced Parkinson's disease deep brain stimulation in the Nc. subthalamicus has gained more and more importance in recent years. Usually this technique is considered as safe and short of psychiatric side effects, except for sometimes seen changes in frontal executive functions and transient postoperative depression. We report a 58-year-old patient with a 14 year history of Idiopathic Parkinson's disease. Due to severe L-Dopa-Induced dyskinesias and motor fluctuations the patient was deep brain stimulated in the Nc. subthalamicus. During intraoperative macrostimulation the patient developed…