Hyperkinetic movement disorders following SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination - an update.

The aim of this review was to summarise current knowledge regarding hyperkinetic movement disorders related to SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination in terms of phenomenology, epidemiology, pathogenesis and treatment. After a thorough review of the PubMed and Google Scholar databases (2020-2022), we identified myoclonus and ataxia sometimes accompanied by opsoclonus (AMS) as the two most frequent COVID-19 sequelae, with chorea, tremor and dystonia being very rare. The pathogenesis seems to be variable, but in the majority of AMS cases it was autoimmunological, with good response and recovery after corticosteroids or intravenous immunoglobulins infusions. Vaccination may be complicated by hyperkinetic movement disorders (e.g. tremor, dystonia), but this is very rare. Patients with Deep Brain Simulation depletion should not be postponed due to lockdowns as this may result in fatal outcomes.

Movement disorders in COVID-19 times: impact on care in movement disorders and Parkinson disease.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The purpose of this review is to outline the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on movement disorder holistic care, particularly in the care of people with Parkinson disease (PWP). RECENT FINDINGS: As the pandemic unfolds, a flurry of literature was published regarding the impact of COVID-19 on people with Parkinson disease including the direct impact of infection, availability of ambulatory care, loss of community-based team care, and acceptability of telemedicine. SUMMARY: COVID-19 has impacted the care of PWP in numerous ways. Recognizing infection in PWP poses challenges. Specific long-term complications, including emerging reports of long COVID syndrome is a growing concern. Caregivers and PWP have also been impacted by COVID-19 social isolation restrictions, with radical changes to the structure of social networks and support systems globally. In a matter of weeks, the global community saw an incredible uptake in telemedicine, which brought benefits and pitfalls. As PWP adapted to virtual platforms and the changing architecture of care delivery, the pandemic amplified many preexisting inequities amongst populations and countries, exposing a new 'digital divide'.

SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, Parkinson's disease, and other movement disorders: case series and short literature review.

BACKGROUND: Several neurological complications have been reported following SARS-Cov-2 vaccination, without a clear causal relationship ever being verified, including some cases of worsening of Parkinson's disease (PD) symptoms and new onset of movement disorders in non-parkinsonian patients. METHODS: We describe two new cases of PD patients treated with device-aided therapy who developed worsening of parkinsonian symptoms after receiving the third vaccine dose (booster). We also conducted a short review of the cases reported in literature of PD symptoms worsening and new onset of movement disorders in non-parkinsonian patients after SARS-Cov-2 vaccination. RESULTS: The first patient, a 46-year-old man implanted with bilateral Subthalamic Deep Brain Stimulation, experienced temporary motor and non-motor symptoms worsening after mRNA-1273 booster, improved after stimulation settings modification. The second patient, a 55-year-old man implanted with percutaneous endoscopic transgastric jejunostomy (PEG-J) for levodopa-carbidopa intestinal gel (LCIG) infusion experienced severe temporary worsening of dyskinesia and managed through temporary LCIG dose reduction. Other seven cases of vaccine-related movement disorder are currently reported in literature, four describing PD symptoms worsening and three the onset of new movement disorders in otherwise healthy people. CONCLUSION: Both our patients and the cases described so far completely recovered after few days with parkinsonian therapy modification, symptomatic treatment, or even spontaneously, underlining the transient and benign nature of side effects from vaccine. Patients should be reassured about these complications, manageable through a prompt evaluation by the reference neurologist.

Updates in Functional Movement Disorders: from Pathophysiology to Treatment Advances.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review discusses advances in functional movement disorders (FMD) over the past 3 years, with a focus on risk factors, diagnosis, pathophysiology, neuroimaging studies, and treatment. RECENT FINDINGS: The past decade has brought a revived interest in functional movement disorders, with a growing number of studies exploring pathophysiological mechanisms. Here, we review recent studies demonstrating changes in attention, emotional and sensorimotor function in FMD. Through international collaborative efforts, progress has been made in defining biomarkers and outcome measures, an important prerequisite towards standardization of diagnosis and reporting of outcomes in clinical trials. Of particular interest are neuroimaging studies demonstrating functional and structural changes in motor and emotional brain circuits, deepening our understanding of FMD as a neurocircuit disorder and potentially paving the way towards new treatments. Currently available treatment modalities have shown successful outcomes via outpatient, inpatient, and virtual delivery. The last 3 years have seen tremendous efforts to better understand, diagnose, and treat FMD. The disease model has been broadened to include a biopsychosocial formulation, and insights on the pathophysiology on FMD are informing treatment efforts. Several international multidisciplinary research collaborations are underway to define biomarkers and best outcome measures, highlighting the path towards improved standardization of future treatment trials. Additionally, the rise of telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced geographic barriers and paved the way for virtual therapy sessions and self-guided programs.

Moving Forward from the COVID-19 Pandemic: Needed Changes in Movement Disorders Care and Research.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically affected the health and well-being of individuals with movement disorders. This manuscript reviews these effects, discusses pandemic-related changes in clinical care and research, and suggests improvements to care and research models. RECENT FINDINGS: During the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, individuals with movement disorders have experienced worsening of symptoms, likely due to decreased access to care, loss of social connection, and decreased physical activity. Through telemedicine, care has moved out of the clinic and into the home. Clinical research has also been significantly disrupted, and there has been a shift to decentralized approaches. The pandemic has highlighted disparities in access to care and representation in research. We must now translate these experiences into better care and research models with a focus on equitable integration of telemedicine, better support of patients and caregivers, the development of meaningful digital endpoints, and optimization of decentralized research designs.

Diagnosis and Initial Treatment of Functional Movement Disorders in Children.

Functional movement disorders (FMD) are complex neurobehavioral disorders that can be a significant source of disability for both children and their caregivers. While FMD in the adult population is better characterized, the aim of this paper is to review the pertinent clinical and historical features, diagnostic criteria, and multi-disciplinary management of FMD in the pediatric population. We highlight recent trends in pediatric FMD, including the increase in functional tic-like behaviors that has been observed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Utility of Deep Brain Stimulation Telemedicine for Patients With Movement Disorders During the COVID-19 Outbreak in China.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the utility of deep brain stimulation (DBS) telemedicine in the management of patients with movement disorders from January 2019 to March 2020, covering the main period of the COVID-19 outbreak in China. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We obtained data from 40 hospitals around China that employed DBS tele-programming for their outpatients with Parkinson's disease or dystonia from January 2019 to March 2020. Data were obtained on the number and nature of patients' DBS health care service requests, reasons for their requests, the number of DBS telemedicine sessions subsequently completed, safety issues, and the patients' satisfaction with the DBS tele-programing parameter adjustments made. RESULTS: There were 909 DBS tele-programming health service requests (from 196 patients) completed during the study period. The results showed: 1) the number of DBS telemedicine sessions requested and the number of patients examined increased during the COVID-19 outbreak in February and March 2020 when compared with the monthly numbers in 2019; 2) the most common reason for the patients' health service requests was poor symptom control; 3) the most common DBS tele-programming adjustment made was voltage change; 4) overall, most (89%) DBS tele-programming adjustment sessions were experienced by the patients as satisfactory; and 5) significant adverse events and unexpected treatment interruptions caused by connection failure or other hardware- or software-related problems did not occur. CONCLUSIONS: DBS telemedicine could have a unique role to play in maintaining the delivery of DBS treatment and medical care to outpatients with movement disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic.

North American survey on impact of the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown on DBS care.

BACKGROUND: The initial COVID-19 pandemic shutdown led to the canceling of elective surgeries throughout most of the USA and Canada. OBJECTIVE: This survey was carried out on behalf of the Parkinson Study Group (PSG) to understand the impact of the shutdown on deep brain stimulation (DBS) practices in North America. METHODS: A survey was distributed through RedCap® to the members of the PSG Functional Neurosurgical Working Group. Only one member from each site was asked to respond to the survey. Responses were collected from May 15 to June 6, 2020. RESULTS: Twenty-three sites participated; 19 (83%) sites were from the USA and 4 (17%) from Canada. Twenty-one sites were academic medical centers. COVID-19 associated DBS restrictions were in place from 4 to 16 weeks. One-third of sites halted preoperative evaluations, while two-thirds of the sites offered limited preoperative evaluations. Institutional policy was the main contributor for the reported practice changes, with 87% of the sites additionally reporting patient-driven surgical delays secondary to pandemic concerns. Pre-post DBS associated management changes affected preoperative assessments 96%; electrode placement 87%; new implantable pulse generator (IPG) placement 83%; IPG replacement 65%; immediate postoperative DBS programming 74%; and routine DBS programming 91%. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic related shutdown resulted in DBS practice changes in almost all North American sites who responded to this large survey. Information learned could inform development of future contingency plans to reduce patient delays in care under similar circumstances.

Telemedicine in Neurology: A Scoping Review of Key Outcomes in Movement Disorders.

Introduction: Telemedicine for neurological care has been researched and practiced in various ways over the past three decades, but the recent COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly expanded its use and highlighted the need for a synthesis of the existing literature. We aimed to review the methodology and outcomes of previous studies that have evaluated the use of telemedicine in movement disorders. Methods: This scoping review was performed by searching PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, and CINAHL databases from 1946 to November 2020. Studies that assessed the application of telemedicine for delivering care to patients with a movement disorder were included. We reported the aims and employed methodologies and categorized the outcomes from each study. Results: The search retrieved 228 articles, and 41 studies met the criteria for inclusion in the review. The majority of telemedicine studies were case series or randomized controlled pilot trials, investigating feasibility and acceptability in Parkinson's disease. Even with heterogeneity among outcome measures, they can be categorized into themes, such as feasibility, satisfaction, and efficacy. Conclusions: Telemedicine use has grown rapidly, due to the demands of providing care during a global pandemic. This application of telemedicine has been considered a promising way to expand care in Neurology, although research evaluating the dissemination of its use is dilatory. This review highlights the number of studies that have found telemedicine to be an acceptable and feasible way to deliver care for movement disorders. Further research is needed to expand on harmonization of outcomes, reach, adoption, and long-term use of telemedicine.

An Analysis of Public Interest in Elective Neurosurgical Procedures During the COVID-19 Pandemic Through Online Search Engine Trends.

OBJECTIVE: In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has recommended the temporary cessation of all elective surgeries. The effects on patients' interest of elective neurosurgical procedures are currently unexplored. METHODS: Using Google Trends, search terms of 7 different neurosurgical procedure categories (trauma, spine, tumor, movement disorder, epilepsy, endovascular, and miscellaneous) were assessed in terms of relative search volume (RSV) between January 2015 and September 2020. Analyses of search terms were performed for over the short term (February 18, 2020, to April 18, 2020), intermediate term (January 1, 2020, to May 31, 2020), and long term (January 2015 to September 2020). State-level interest during phase I reopening (April 28, 2020, to May 31, 2020) was also evaluated. RESULTS: In the short term, RSVs of 4 categories (epilepsy, movement disorder, spine, and tumor) were significantly lower in the post-CMS announcement period. In the intermediate term, RSVs of 5 categories (miscellaneous, epilepsy, movement disorder, spine, and tumor) were significantly lower in the post-CMS announcement period. In the long term, RSVs of nearly all categories (endovascular, epilepsy, miscellaneous, movement disorder, spine, and tumor) were significantly lower in the post-CMS announcement period. Only the movement disorder procedure category had significantly higher RSV in states that reopened early. CONCLUSIONS: With the recommendation for cessation of elective surgeries, patient interests in overall elective neurosurgical procedures have dropped significantly. With gradual reopening, there has been a resurgence in some procedure types. Google Trends has proven to be a useful tracker of patient interest and may be used by neurosurgical departments to facilitate outreach strategies.

Experiences of telemedicine in neurological out-patient clinics during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to rapid changes in the delivery of medical care worldwide. The main objective of this survey was to investigate the initial experiences of neurologists with the use of telemedicine for different neurological conditions during the first phase of the COVID-19. METHODS: All hospital-based neurologists in Norway (n = 400) were invited to a questionnaire survey by e-mail in April 2020. The study focused on telemedicine and all questions were answered with regard to the first weeks of the pandemic lockdown in Norway. RESULTS: One-hundred and thirty-five neurologists responded. Overall, 87% reported a shift toward more telemedicine, with significantly more use of telephone than video consultations for both new referrals (54% vs. 30%, P < 0.001) and follow-ups (99% vs. 50%, P < 0.001). Respondents deemed it much more professionally satisfactory to conduct follow-up consultations by telephone, than to carry out consultations with new patients by telephone (85% vs. 13%, P < 0.001). Teleconsultations were better suited for headache and epilepsy patients as compared to multiple sclerosis and movement disorder patients. There was no significant difference between residents and senior consultants regarding how they experienced teleconsultations. Female neurologists found telemedicine better and more effective than male neurologists. INTERPRETATION: Telemedicine was rapidly implemented in Norwegian neurological departments during the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. Teleconsultations were better suited for follow-ups than for new referrals, and better for headache and epilepsy patients as compared to multiple sclerosis and movement disorder patients.