Deep Brain Therapy Benefits May Remain When Device Is Off for Dystonia Patients

Two patients freed from severe to disabling effects of dystonia through deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy continued to have symptom relief for months after their devices accidentally were fully or partly turned off — that’s according to a report published online Feb. 11 in the journal Movement Disorders.

“Current thought is that symptoms will worsen within hours or days of device shut-off, but these two young men continued to have clinical benefit despite interruption of DBS therapy for several months,” says Senior Author Michele Tagliati, MD, director of the Movement Disorders Program at Cedars-Sinai’s Department of Neurology. “To our knowledge, these two cases represent the longest duration of retained benefit in primary generalized dystonia. Moreover, when these patients’ symptoms did return, severity was far milder than it was before DBS.” For more information, click here to read the full release.