Personality Changes After Subthalamic Nucleus Stimulation in Parkinson's Disease.

BACKGROUND: While deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN-DBS) significantly improves motor deficits in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), it is still unclear whether it affects personality functioning. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the present study was to examine personality changes in patients with PD after STN-DBS from the perspectives of both the patients and caregivers. Moreover, by assessing the premorbid personalities of the patients, we tried to determine individual vulnerability to STN-DBS-induced personality changes. METHODS: In total, 27 patients and their caregivers participated in our retrospective observational study. They were asked to assess the patients' personality changes with the Iowa Scale of Personality Changes (ISPC) and the patients' premorbid personalities with the Big Five Inventory (BFI). RESULTS: Caregivers reported significant personality changes in the ISPC domains of Executive Disturbance (p = 0.01) and Disturbed Social Behavior (p = 0.02). Most of the ISPC domains were positively correlated with Conscientiousness, while Executive Disturbance was negatively correlated with Neuroticism of the BFI scale. CONCLUSION: Our results show that executive and social functioning are the two most vulnerable domains in patients with PD after STN-DBS, especially in those patients who score higher for neuroticism and lower for conscientiousness on the BFI scale. The results of our study may provide movement disorder specialists with better counseling options and better selection of DBS candidates. Caregivers' perspective might contribute significantly in understanding postoperative personality changes.

Bee Venom Does Not Reduce the Risk for Parkinson's Disease: Epidemiological Study among Beekeepers.

BACKGROUND: Based on the promising results from preclinical studies, bee venom has been investigated as a neuroprotective agent in Parkinson's disease. OBJECTIVE: To assess if longstanding exposure to bee venom is associated with decreased risk for Parkinson's disease among beekeepers. METHODS: Questionnaire gathering information about diagnosis of Parkinson's disease and exposure to bee stings was posted to 6500 members of Slovenian beekeepers' organisation. RESULTS: We received 1298 responses (response rate 20.1%). Twenty beekeepers, all older than 60 years, were diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. The prevalence of Parkinson's disease in beekeepers aged ≥60 years was 3.9%, which is above the reported 0.6-1.3% prevalence of PD in this age group in European population. There was no difference in parameters reflecting bee venom exposure between beekeepers with and without Parkinson's disease. CONCLUSIONS: Continuous exposure to bee venom does not affect neurodegeneration to the extent where it could prevent the expression of Parkinson's disease. © 2021 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.