285817 20260402150601.0 10.1093/braincomms/fcag100 doi pmid:41924696 pmid pmc:PMC13037577 pmc DZNE-2026-00353 English 610 Off, Johannes 0 Psychometric reliability of patient-reported visual analogue scales in subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation programming for Parkinson's disease. [Oxford] 2026 Oxford University Press article DRIVER Output Types/Journal article DataCite Journal Article journal journal PUB:(DE-HGF)16 1775135061_15916 PUB:(DE-HGF) ARTICLE BibTeX JOURNAL_ARTICLE ORCID Journal Article 0 EndNote Subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation is an established therapy for Parkinson's disease, yet its programming relies heavily on subjective patient feedback. Visual analogue scales have been proposed to structure patient-reported outcome measures during programming, but their psychometric reliability has not been systematically evaluated. In this study, fifteen patients with bilateral subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation completed four structured experiments to assess the reliability of visual analogue scales: test-retest consistency, the effect of stimulation duration (15, 60, 120 s), the impact of unilateral deep brain stimulation withdrawal intervals (0, 10, 30 min), and contralateral stimulation ON versus OFF. Across all experiments, patients provided over 3000 visual analogue scale ratings, which were analyzed using correlation, regression, and Bland-Altman methods, with subgroup analyses examining motor phenotype, cognition, and disease burden. Visual analogue scale ratings demonstrated strong test-retest reliability (r = 0.70, R 2 = 0.53), with 83% of repeated scores within ±2 points. Reliability was lower in patients with tremor-onset compared to non-tremor onset (P = 0.04) but was unaffected by cognitive status or quality of life. Stimulation duration influenced absolute scores, with 15 s ratings systematically lower than 60-120 s (P < 0.001), though relative scaling was preserved. Deep brain stimulation withdrawal intervals did not affect group means but increased trial-level variability, while contralateral stimulation ON versus OFF showed modest correspondence (r = 0.31, R 2 = 0.13), suggesting hemispheric interactions in subjective perception. These findings indicate that visual analogue scale ratings provide reproducible and quantifiable feedback during subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation programming. Exploratory analyses suggest that reliability may vary with motor phenotype, stimulation duration, and bilateral context. Incorporating structured visual analogue scale feedback could enhance programming workflows, support remote care models, and inform future multimodal closed-loop deep brain stimulation strategies. 353 - Clinical and Health Care Research (POF4-353) G:(DE-HGF)POF4-353 POF4-353 POF IV 0 Dataset connected to CrossRef, PubMed, , Journals: pub.dzne.de Parkinson’s disease (PD) Other deep brain stimulation (DBS) Other visual analogue scale (VAS) Other Scherer, Maximilian 0000-0002-5280-2828 1 Peschke, Sophia 2 Kirschner, Angelina 3 Zhang, Weidong 4 Shaik, Juhi 5 Dong, Jing 6 Mehrkens, Jan-Hinnerk 7 Kaufmann, Elisabeth 0000-0002-7582-2215 8 Koeglsperger, Thomas P:(DE-2719)2810825 9 Last author dzne 10.1093/braincomms/fcag100 Vol. 8, no. 2, p. fcag100 PERI:(DE-600)3020013-1 2 fcag100 Brain communications 8 2026 2632-1297 http://pub.dzne.de/record/285817/files/DZNE-2026-00353.pdf Restricted http://pub.dzne.de/record/285817/files/DZNE-2026-00353.pdf?subformat=pdfa pdfa Restricted Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen I:(DE-588)1065079516 DZNE 9 P:(DE-2719)2810825 DE-HGF Gesundheit Neurodegenerative Diseases G:(DE-HGF)POF4-350 G:(DE-HGF)POF4-353 G:(DE-HGF)POF4 G:(DE-HGF)POF4-300 G:(DE-HGF)POF Clinical and Health Care Research 0 JCR StatID:(DE-HGF)0100 StatID BRAIN COMMUN : 2022 2024-12-20 DBCoverage StatID:(DE-HGF)0200 StatID SCOPUS 2024-12-20 DBCoverage StatID:(DE-HGF)0300 StatID Medline 2024-12-20 DBCoverage StatID:(DE-HGF)0501 StatID DOAJ Seal 2024-04-03T10:36:45Z DBCoverage StatID:(DE-HGF)0500 StatID DOAJ 2024-04-03T10:36:45Z Peer Review StatID:(DE-HGF)0030 StatID DOAJ : Anonymous peer review 2024-04-03T10:36:45Z Creative Commons Attribution CC BY (No Version) LIC:(DE-HGF)CCBYNV V:(DE-HGF) DOAJ 2024-04-03T10:36:45Z DBCoverage StatID:(DE-HGF)0199 StatID Clarivate Analytics Master Journal List 2024-12-20 WoS StatID:(DE-HGF)0112 StatID Emerging Sources Citation Index 2024-12-20 DBCoverage StatID:(DE-HGF)0150 StatID Web of Science Core Collection 2024-12-20 IF < 5 StatID:(DE-HGF)9900 StatID 2024-12-20 Article Processing Charges StatID:(DE-HGF)0561 StatID 2024-12-20 Fees StatID:(DE-HGF)0700 StatID 2024-12-20 I:(DE-2719)1111015 Clinical Research (Munich) Clinical Research (Munich) 0 journal EDITORS VDBINPRINT I:(DE-2719)1111015 UNRESTRICTED