ABSTRACT
INTRoDuCTIoNThis chapter reviews prominent hypotheses about the various neuronal, physiological, and metabolic mechanisms that underlie the therapeutic benefit of deep brain stimulation (DBS). DBS was first used to treat neurologically-based movement disorders, such as tremor associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD), and is widely used for essential tremor and generalized dystonia as well as PD [1-3]. The application of DBS is rapidly expanding to other neurologic and psychiatric conditions, such as Tourette syndrome, epilepsy, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and chronic pain [4-8]. However, because of its long history as an effective treatment for movement disorders, most hypotheses of mechanisms of DBS action are specific to those conditions and the effects of stimulating different nuclei within the basal gangliacorticothalamic network.
