Clinical/encephalographic syndrome of dopamine deficiency in patients with depressed consciousness after severe brain injury

Abstract

Objective. To determine electroencephalographic signs of dopamine deficiency syndrome during the recovery after severe brain injury (SBI). Material and methods. We studied 35 patients with SBI (23 men and 12 women, mean age 29±13 years). Results and conclusion. We identified a set of neurological symptoms (increased muscular tone of extrapyramidal type, rest tremor, autonomic disorders, which were most characteristic of the autonomic state, and some forms of mutism associated, according to current conceptions, with the dopaminergic system deficiency syndrome. This clinical picture was accompanied by stable EEG changes: an increase in the severity of beta activity of 13-14 Hz, enhanced in the frontal and anterior temporal areas, synchronized with equivalent dipole source localization in subcortical and frontal/basal areas. Dopamine deficiency regression syndrome was accompanied by an increase in beta EEG activity (from 13 to 16 Hz), but with the persistent abnormal enhancement of coherent hemispheric relations, especially in the occipital- temporal areas.