“My family say they grieve for the old me” – profound personality changes after deep brain stimulation

Probably no need for you to worry since I bet the location is different, but ask your doctor about this.
Possible uses for stroke:

First Trial of DBS for Stroke Recovery: Initial Patient’s Functional Progress Continues Through 5 Months

DBS for Stroke Recovery: First Patient’s Early Results Exceed Expectations

Woman Can Move Again After a Breakthrough Stroke Treatment - DBS Deep Brain Stimulation

Study: DBS shows promise for treating patients with post-stroke pain syndrome

The problem here:

 “My family say they grieve for the old me” – profound personality changes after deep brain stimulation

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus in Parkinson's disease (PD) has been highly successful in controlling the motor symptoms of this disorder, which include tremor, slowed movement (akinesia), and muscle stiffness or rigidity. The figure above shows the electrode implantation procedure for PD, where a stimulating electrode is placed in either the subthalamic nucleus, (STN), a tiny collection of neurons within the basal ganglia circuit, or in the internal segment of the globus pallidus, another structure in the basal ganglia (Okun, 2012). DBS of the STN is more common, and more often a source of disturbing non-motor side effects.

In brief, DBS of the STN alters neural activity patterns in complex cortico-basal-ganglia-thalamo-cortical networks (McIntyre & Hahn, 2010).

DBS surgery may be recommended for some patients in whom dopamine (DA) replacement therapy has become ineffective, usually after a few years. DA medications include the classic DA precursor L-DOPA, followed by DA agonists such as pramipexole, ropinirole, and bromocriptine. But unfortunately, impulse control disorders (ICDs, e.g., compulsive shopping, excessive gambling, binge eating, and compulsive sexual behavior) occur in about 17% of PD patients on DA agonists (Voon et al., 2017).

There are many first-person accounts from PD patients who describe uncharacteristic and embarrassing behavior after taking DA agonists, like this grandpa who started seeing prostitutes for the first time in his life:

'I have become an embarrassment'

For most of his life John Smithers was a respected family man who ran a successful business. Then he started paying for sex. Now, in his 70s, he explains how his behaviour has left him broke, alone and tormented

I am 70 years old and used to be respectable. I was a magistrate for 25 years, and worked hard to feed my children and build up the family business. I was not the most faithful of husbands, but I tried to be discreet about my affairs.¹ Now I seem to be a liability. Over the last two decades I have spent a fortune on prostitutes and lost two wives. I have made irrational business decisions that took me to the point of bankruptcy. I have become an embarrassment to my nearest and dearest.

Also reports like: Drug 'led patients to gamble'.


New-onset ICDs can also occur in patients receiving STN DBS, but the effects are mixed across the entire population: ICD symptoms can also improve or remain unchanged. Why this is the case is a vexing problem that includes premorbid personality, genetics, family history, past and present addictions, and demographic factors (Weintraub & Claassen).

- click on image for a larger view -

Neuroethicists are weighing in on the potential side effects of DBS that may alter a patient's perception of identity and self. A recent paper included a first-person account of altered personality and a sense of self-estrangement in a 46 year old woman undergoing STN DBS for PD (Gilbert & Viaña, 2018):

The patient reported a persistent state of self-perceived changes following implantation. More than one year after surgery, her narratives explicitly refer to a persistent perception of strangeness and alteration of her concept of self. For instance, she reported:

"can't be the real me anymore—I can't pretend . . . I think that I felt that the person that I have been [since the intervention] was somehow observing somebody else, but it wasn't me. . . . I feel like I am who I am now. But it's not the me that went into the surgery that time. . . . My family say they grieve for the old [me]. . . ."

Many of her quotes are striking in their similarity to behaviors that occur in the manic phase of bipolar disorder {loss of control, grandiosity}:

The patient also reported developing severe postoperative impulsivity: "I cannot control the impulse to go off if I'm angry." In parallel, while describing a sense of loss of control over some impulsions, she has also recognized that DBS gave her increased feelings of strength: "I never had felt this lack of power or this giving of power—until I had deep brain stimulation."

{also uncharacteristic sexual urges and hypersexuality; excessively energetic; compulsive shopping}:

...she experienced radically enhanced capacities, in the form of increased uncontrollable sexual urges:

"I know this is a bit embarrassing. But I had 35 staples in my head, and we made love in the hospital bathroom and that wasn't just me. It was just I had felt more sexual with the surgery than without."

And greater physical energy:

"I remember about a week after the surgery, I still had the 35 staples in my head and I was just starting to enter the cooler months of winter but my kids had got me winter clothes so I had nothing to wear to the follow up appointment and when I went back there of the morning, I thought "I can walk into the doctor's" even though it was 5 kilometers into town. It's like the psychologist said: "For a woman who had a very invasive brain surgery 9 days ago and you've just almost walked 10 kilometers." And on the way, I stopped and bought a very uncharacteristic dress, backless—completely different to what I usually do."