title: Alexithymia in patients with Parkinson's disease treated with DBS of the subthalamic nucleus: a case-control study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the effect of deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN-DBS) on alexithymia, a deficit in affective regulation, comparing patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) submitted to STN-DBS (DBS group) to PD patients not yet treated with STN-DBS (pre-DBS group) and to healthy participants (C group).
  
  
  METHODS
  We recruited 27 consecutive STN-DBS PD patients, 38 consecutive pre-DBS patients and 27 healthy participants. Patients were assessed for alexithymia (Toronto Alexithymia Scale), depression, [beck depression inventory (BDI)], and cognitive functions (reasoning, memory, attentional, and executive tests).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The DBS patients performed worse than the pre-DBS patients in the corsi's block-tapping test, in the phonemic fluency task and in the Frontal Assessment Battery. Around 30% of DBS (29.6%) and pre-DBS (31.6%) patients resulted alexithymic, compared with 14.8% in the C group. The results pointed out significantly higher alexithymia scores in both the DBS and pre-DBS groups compared with the C group, while no difference emerged between the DBS and pre-DBS groups. Pre-DBS group showed a significantly higher BDI score than the C group, while DBS group did not.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although the results suggest that STN-DBS does not affect alexithymia, both the DBS and pre-DBS patients reported higher prevalence (about 30%) of alexithymia than did healthy subjects (14.8%).
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Turin Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Lorys
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Castelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Turin Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Debora
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tonello
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University of Turin Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rizzi
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University of Turin Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zibetti
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University of Turin Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lanotte
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University of Turin Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Leonardo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lopiano
keywords: PD patients; STN-DBS surgery; alexithymia; emotional dysregulation; mood