Deep Brain Stimulation for Movement Disorders with NSPC’s Dr. Brian Snyder

Deep brain stimulation is the procedure we most commonly consider when we treat patients with movement disorders. Safe and effective, deep brain stimulation has been used as a treatment for 25 years. Patients we generally treat using deep brain stimulation are those with Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, and dystonia. At times, we may consider using deep brain stimulation to treat patients with other movement disorders, such as other tremors or tourette’s syndrome.

Deep brain stimulation may be an option for patients whose movement disorders are not well controlled with medical management. An example of a patient not requiring an operation would be a person with Parkinson’s disease whose symptoms are controlled with medication. Along the same lines, if you have essential tremor, and your tremor goes away with medication, we would rarely consider an operation.

Unfortunately, many patients with movement disorders do not obtain adequate control with medication alone. I have extensive experience treating these patients, and I have seen significant benefits from deep brain stimulation. Many patients call these benefits miraculous because they regained the ability to feed and physically care for themselves, their walking improves, and they rely less on medications.

Dr Snyder works with a multidisciplinary team of physicians to identify the right patients for deep brain stimulation procedures. This team enables us to perform safe, effective surgeries with the optimal results. We would be happy to see any patients with any questions about their movement disorder and whether they might be a candidate for surgery.