DBS

DBS patient education

A clear understanding of your condition and treatment options is an essential part of the care process. For patients considering or undergoing deep brain stimulation, reliable, well-organized information reduces uncertainty and supports more confident decision-making.

The resources below are organized by where you are in the process. They include the full-length patient guide written by our team, the pages on this site that matter most at each stage, and trusted organizations outside RUSH. This section will continue to grow, reflecting both advances in the field and the questions we hear most often.

Patient's Guide to Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery

Written by Sepehr Sani, MD and Neepa Patel, MD, drawn from three decades of caring for people with movement disorders and thousands of DBS procedures performed at RUSH.

It covers the history of DBS and a plain-English glossary of the terms you will hear in clinic, the conditions DBS treats and which symptoms respond, what surgery involves both awake and asleep, risks and complications discussed honestly, programming and recovery, and living well with the device over the years that follow.

Our coordinators can explain how to obtain a copy. Call (312) 563-2032 or email neurofus@rush.edu.

Timeline of the DBS journey from evaluation through fine-tuning

Not sure which resource you need?

Our coordinators can help identify which materials, forms or resources fit your condition and treatment pathway.