Gender differences in referrals for deep brain stimulation for essential tremor

Paul Reker; Stefanie T Jost; Petra Schiller; Alexandra Gronostay; Gereon R Fink; Veerle Visser-Vandewalle; Keyoumars Ashkan; Alexandra Rizos; Pablo Martinez-Martin; Lena Strobel; Afsar Sattari; Lars Timmermann; Anna Sauerbier; K Ray Chaudhuri; Elke Kalbe; Haidar S Dafsari

doi:10.1016/j.parkreldis.2023.105490

Gender differences in referrals for deep brain stimulation for essential tremor

Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2023 Jul:112:105490. doi: 10.1016/j.parkreldis.2023.105490. Epub 2023 Jun 17.

Authors

Paul Reker¹, Stefanie T Jost², Petra Schiller³, Alexandra Gronostay⁴, Gereon R Fink⁵, Veerle Visser-Vandewalle⁶, Keyoumars Ashkan⁷, Alexandra Rizos⁸, Pablo Martinez-Martin⁹, Lena Strobel¹⁰, Afsar Sattari¹¹, Lars Timmermann¹², Anna Sauerbier¹³, K Ray Chaudhuri¹⁴, Elke Kalbe¹⁵, Haidar S Dafsari¹⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, University of Cologne, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany. Electronic address: paul.reker@uk-koeln.de.
² Department of Neurology, University of Cologne, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany. Electronic address: stefanie.jost@uk-koeln.de.
³ Institute of Medical Statistics and Computational Biology (IMSB), Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany. Electronic address: petra.schiller@uni-koeln.de.
⁴ Department of Neurology, University of Cologne, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany. Electronic address: alexandra.gronostay@uk-koeln.de.
⁵ Department of Neurology, University of Cologne, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany; Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-3), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany. Electronic address: gereon.fink@uk-koeln.de.
⁶ Department of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany. Electronic address: veerle.visser-vandewalle@uk-koeln.de.
⁷ Parkinson Foundation International Centre of Excellence, King's College Hospital, London, UK. Electronic address: k.ashkan@nhs.net.
⁸ Parkinson Foundation International Centre of Excellence, King's College Hospital, London, UK. Electronic address: alex.rizos@googlemail.com.
⁹ Center for Networked Biomedical Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED), Carlos III Institute of Health, Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: pmm650@hotmail.com.
¹⁰ Department of Neurology, University of Cologne, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany. Electronic address: lenastrobel@web.de.
¹¹ University of Cologne, Faculty of Humanities, Cologne, Germany; German Association of Women Engineers, Cologne, Germany. Electronic address: a.sattari@goal-epmts.de.
¹² Department of Neurology, University Hospital Giessen and Marburg, Campus Marburg, Marburg, Germany. Electronic address: lars.timmermann@uk-gm.de.
¹³ Department of Neurology, University of Cologne, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany. Electronic address: anna.sauerbier@uk-koeln.de.
¹⁴ Parkinson Foundation International Centre of Excellence, King's College Hospital, London, UK; Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK; NIHR Mental Health Biomedical Research Centre and Dementia Biomedical Research Unit, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London, London, UK. Electronic address: chaudhuriray@hotmail.com.
¹⁵ Medical Psychology | Neuropsychology and Gender Studies & Center for Neuropsychological Diagnostics and Interventions (CeNDI), Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany. Electronic address: elke.kalbe@uk-koeln.de.
¹⁶ Department of Neurology, University of Cologne, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany. Electronic address: haidar.dafsari@uk-koeln.de.

PMID: 37354776
DOI: 10.1016/j.parkreldis.2023.105490

Abstract

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an established treatment for essential tremor (ET). Gender differences in DBS have been recognized for Parkinson's disease. In this systematic chart review, we also observed a gender differences in DBS for ET. The main reason was an underrepresentation of women in referrals for surgical evaluation.

Keywords: Deep brain stimulation; Essential tremor.

Publication types

Letter

MeSH terms

Deep Brain Stimulation*
Essential Tremor* / therapy
Female
Humans
Parkinson Disease* / therapy
Referral and Consultation
Sex Factors