Patients with Parkinson's Disease may be eligible for Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) in case of severe motor complications. This thesis provides indications for improving patient selection for DBS,... Show morePatients with Parkinson's Disease may be eligible for Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) in case of severe motor complications. This thesis provides indications for improving patient selection for DBS, as well as describing new biomarkers based on Electroencephalography (EEG) to aid during the DBS selection process. Show less
We aimed to expand our knowledge about the level of neurocognitive functioning (NCF) and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with primary and secondary brain tumors during the... Show moreWe aimed to expand our knowledge about the level of neurocognitive functioning (NCF) and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with primary and secondary brain tumors during the disease course. We found that the tumor itself has the largest negative impact on NCF and HRQoL. At group level, treatment (surgery, radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy) did not seem to have a large extra detrimental effect on the short term. However, subgroups of patients, e.g. patients with tumors in the non-dominant hemisphere and long-term survivors, appeared to be vulnerable for cognitive decline after treatment. At the individual patient level, HRQoL varied to a large degree in the first months after treatment, confirming this is a multidimensional concept and that the impact of treatment differs for the different aspects. With the results from the studies described in this thesis, treatment and individual patient care can be optimized by minimizing the negative impact of treatment, e.g. by intraoperative monitoring of cognition during awake surgery, and by counseling and rehabilitation of patients. Besides, investigators should pay attention to methodological challenges in reporting of neurocognitive outcomes in research, as reporting of these outcomes is currently not sufficient, while evidence can be of value in clinical decision-making. Show less
