Deep brain stimulation: Issues and prospects

Abstract

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has already been recognized as an effective therapy for involuntary movements. As DBS has become more widely used, psychiatric symptoms and personality changes induced by DBS have sometimes been observed. Such phenomena are associated with the close relationship of motor, associative and limbic circuits in the corticobasal ganglia-thalamic-cortical (CBTC) circuit, which is often selected as a target for DBS. On the other hand, clinical research on DBS by stimulating the CBTC circuit for depression and obsessive compulsive disorder is being carried out in Western countries. The reversibility of DBS allowed it to be used as a new therapeutic method for psychiatric disorders, epilepsy, aggressiveness, obesity, and cluster headache, among others. However, apprehension on the history of abuse of psychosurgery backs up the development of this field. Prospects and ethical and social issues of DBS should be noted.