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Suicide and suicide attempts after subthalamic nucleus stimulation in Parkinson’s disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis

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Abstract

Background

Deep-brain stimulation is a well-established, effective treatment for patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease. Recent studies examining rates of suicide attempts and suicides after deep-brain stimulation in the bilateral subthalamic nucleus have reported varying results. Using this systematic review and meta-analysis, we aim to obtain a comprehensive understanding of suicidality in Parkinson’s patients after subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation.

Methods

We systematically examined Medline, PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase databases to identify studies published before November 2019 that measured rates of suicidality in Parkinson’s patients who underwent subthalamic nucleus stimulation. A meta-analysis of the data from the included studies was conducted using Stata 12.0.

Results

A total of 18 studies met the eligibility criteria of this study. We found that the pooled rate of suicidal ideation was 4% (95% CI 0.00–7.2%, range 2–17%). The pooled rate of suicide attempts was 1% (95% CI 1.0–2.0%), while the pooled rate of suicide was 1% (95% CI 0.0–1.0%).

Conclusions

Our findings indicate a relatively high rate of suicidality among Parkinson’s patients after subthalamic nucleus deep-brain stimulation. It is important for clinicians to carefully monitor psychiatric disorders, especially suicidal ideation and suicide attempts, in Parkinson’s patients before and after subthalamic nucleus deep-brain stimulation.

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Funding

This research was supported by the Yunnan Applied Basic Research Project (2019FE001(-048)), National Natural Science Foundation of China (81860247, 81960242), Yunnan Province Medical Health Research Institute Project (2018NS0102), The First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University Doctoral Research Fund Project (2017BS005), and “One hundred Young and Middle-aged Academic and Technical backbone” Training Program of Kunming Medical University (60118260105).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical School (Nursing School), Chengdu University, Chengdu, 610106, People’s Republic of China

    Yaji Xu

  2. Department of Neurology, Seventh People’s Hospital of Chengdu, Chengdu, 690041, Sichuan Province, People’s Republic of China

    Baiyuan Yang

  3. Department of General Surgery, Seventh People’s Hospital of Chengdu, Chengdu, 690041, Sichuan Province, People’s Republic of China

    Chuanli Zhou

  4. Department of Geriatric Neurology, First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, 650032, Yunnan Province, People’s Republic of China

    Meijuan Gu, Juan Long, Fang Wang, Yongyun Zhu, Bin Liu, Hui Ren & Xinglong Yang

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  1. Yaji Xu
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Xu, Y., Yang, B., Zhou, C. et al. Suicide and suicide attempts after subthalamic nucleus stimulation in Parkinson’s disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Neurol Sci 42, 267–274 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-020-04555-7

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