We report a case of a patient with drug-resistant epilepsy treated with deep brain stimulation of the anterior nucleus of the thalamus (ANT-DBS). The patient developed psychiatric side effects (PSEs), namely irritability, hostility, aggressiveness, and paranoia, after implantation and stimulation initiation. The stimulation was discontinued and the PSEs were mitigated, but the patient did not return to her pre-implantation state, as documented by repeated psychiatric reports and hospitalizations. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a patient who developed long-term PSEs that did not disappear after stimulation discontinuation. We suppose that ANT-DBS caused a persistent perturbation of the thalamic neuronal networks that are responsible for long-term PSEs.

1st Department of Neurology St Anne's University Hospital and Faculty of Medicine Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic

Central European Institute of Technology Brno Czech Republic

Department of Neurosurgery St Anne's University Hospital and Faculty of Medicine Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic

Faculty of Medicine Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic

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