Antidepressant Effect of Deep Brain Stimulation in Parkinson's Disease Patients

Depressive symptoms of PD patients are major predictors of their prognosis and quality of life. Therefore, successful treatment of depression is crucial in PD patients. Using deep brain stimulation as an antidepressant (or to augment a standard antidepressant) could be a promising new direction. The hypothesis to be tested in the current project is that treatment with deep brain stimulation will improve both the neurological and the psychiatric (depressive) symptoms of PD. It is further hypothesized that the improvement in depressive symptoms will not be a simple consequence of improvement in neurological status. Data from this open label study will form the basis for planning a larger scale controlled trial in depressed PD patients and exploratory studies in patients with major depression who do not have PD. Today, programming of DBS is based on the neurological evaluation of the motor features of PD. If our hypothesis is proven, i.e. parameter manipulation of DBS affects the mental features of PD, it is crucial to establish a valid database that will enable to study these effects. Moreover, such a detailed database will be the basis for the development of a computer-assisted decision making protocol for programming of DBS. A novel decision making protocol will maximize the benefits of DBS in both depressed and non-depressed PD patients.