Parkinson’s Disease

Research Article

Perceived Changes in Communication as an Effect of STN Surgery in Parkinson's Disease: A Qualitative Interview Study

Table 1

Demographic data (all names are pseudonyms).


Participant	Gender	Age years	Diagnosis	Disease duration (years)	Years after STN surgery	Total score UPDRS before STN surgery	Total score UPDRS after STN surgery (12 months )	Speech before surgery	Speech after surgery (6–12 months )	Speech intelligibility before STN surgery	Speech intelligibility *** after STN surgery

Lisa	Female	71	Idiopathic Parkinson’s disease	24	4	Without L- dopa: 37 With L-dopa: 9	Med + stim + 21 Med − stim + 21 Med – stim – 30	No dysarthria Dysarthria assessment mean score 0.1**	No dysarthria Dysarthria assessment mean score 0.03	Words: 100% Sentences: 100%	Words: 100% Sentences: 98%
Greta	Female	73	Idiopathic Parkinson’s disease	32	10	No data found	Med + stim +10 Med – stim + 14 Med – stim − 23	Mild* hypokinetic dysarthria Dysarthria assessment mean score 0.49	Mild hypokinetic dysarthria Dysarthria assessment mean score 0.92	Words: 96% Sentences: 94%	Words: 96% Sentences: 95%
Anders	Male	61	Left sided hemiparkinsonism	10	2	Without L-dopa: 30 With L-dopa: 62	Med + stim + 26 Med – stim + 35 Med – stim − 50	Mild-moderate mixed dysarthria, speech festinations Dysarthria assessment no data found	Dysarthria Dysarthria assessment mean score 1.0	Words: 70% Sentences: 60%	Reading**** 95% Spontaneous speech: 85%
Sven	Male	79	Idiopathic Parkinson’s disease	30	9	No data found	No data found	Mild hypokinetic dysarthria Dysarthria assessment mean score 0.36	Mild hypokinetic dysarthria Dysarthria assessment no data found	Words: 99% Sentences: 100%	No data found

*Dysarthria classification: mild = speech affected but intelligibility intact, moderate = intelligibility slightly decreased, severe = speech supported by augmentative and alternative communication [18].
**Clinical dysarthria test, range 0–4 (normal <0,25; 4 = severe disability) [19].
***SWINT-Swedish Intelligibility Test, [20]. ****No formal SWINT judgment, speech intelligibility was rated in reading and spontaneous speech.