Parasomnia overlap disorder, Parkinson’s disease and subthalamic deep brain stimulation: three case reports

BACKGROUND: Parasomnia overlap disorder (POD) is a distinct parasomnia and characterized by concomitant manifestation of rapid-eye-movement (REM)- and non-REM (NREM)-parasomnias. Although not uncommon among patients with Parkinson’s disease, POD is often under-investigated. CASE PRESENTATION: This is the first report of patients with PD and features of POD that underwent deep brain stimulation. Our patients exhibited different outcomes of POD features after subthalamic deep brain stimulation. CONCLUSIONS: We expect that the reporting of these first patients will open the discussion about the need for more detailed and broad-spectrum assessments regarding parasomnias in PD patients that undergo deep brain stimulation. The implications of our observations are both clinical and neurobiological.