My point is that the available data may not tell us much about the safety and efficacy of this new device.
Somewhat tangentially, and not specific to Parkinson's or DBS, but placebo has been getting stronger for at least some classes of treatment. E.g.:
Tuttle AH, Tohyama S, Ramsay T, Kimmelman J, Schweinhardt P, Bennett GJ, Mogil JS. Increasing placebo responses over time in U.S. clinical trials of neuropathic pain. Pain. 2015 Dec;156(12):2616-2626. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000000333. PMID: 26307858.
Walsh BT, Seidman SN, Sysko R, Gould M. Placebo Response in Studies of Major Depression: Variable, Substantial, and Growing. JAMA. 2002;287(14):1840–1847. doi:10.1001/jama.287.14.1840
So I would not be surprised if placebo got stronger in this area as well.
Has it been contradicted anywhere? I don't see any other studies that have looked into it.
>Most of the included trials in the meta analysis are 10-20 years old as well.
The meta-analysis is from less than 6 months ago, and looked at all the studies available, which cover a range from recent to 10-20 years ago. That is normal for a meta-analysis, so I'm not sure why you're making it sound like it's out of date.
>The BBC article is about a new device.
Yes, there seems to be one study underway, which is still recruiting:
https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04681534