Deep brain stimulation helps Parkinson’s better than drugs

Chicago, United States, January 7: Deep brain stimulation has emerged as an effective technique for treating parkinson’s. On following the patients for six months, it was found that the new technique reduced tremors, rigidity and flailing of the limbs and allowed people to move freely for nearly five extra hours a day.

The small electrical device is implanted surgically in the chest and is connected via wires to electrodes in the brain. It sends electrical signals to brain areas that control movement.

"We had one patient who felt so good he went up to repair his roof, fell down and broke both his legs," said lead author, Fran Weaver of Hines Veterans Affairs Hospital. "Patients are feeling so much better, they forget they still have Parkinson's."

However, the researchers warned that the risks of side-effects were higher than expected. About 40 percent of the patients who received these "brain pacemakers" suffered serious side effects, including a surprising number of falls with injuries.

One of the 121 patients in the study who got deep brain stimulation, died from bleeding in the brain caused by a ruptured blood vessel after the surgery. Post-surgical infection is also a huge risk.

The benefits however, were far greater as motor functioning improved for 71 percent of the Parkinson’s patients after deep brain stimulation. Their quality of life including carrying out daily activities, mobility and emotional well-being, also improved.

"The study provides the medical community with the highest class of evidence for the benefits of deep brain stimulation for properly selected patients," said Dr. William Marks, a University of California neurologist and co-author of the study.

Parkinson's disease, which affects more than 1 million Americans, has no satisfying cure. Patients suffer from severe tremors and periodically rigid limbs as dopamine, a chemical needed for movement, is hindered. Consequently, such patients experience trouble in walking, speaking and writing, and often struggle with depressiondefine.

Drugs, which stimulate dopamine, form the standard treatment but their effectiveness wanes over time or the side effects are too bad, often leaving patients desperate to find a new approach.

Deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2002.

The latest study, funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Institutes of Health, was published in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.

The side-effects may keep a lot of Parkinson’s patients away from undergoing the surgery but, "a surgery done on the right patient by the right team can have magnificent benefits that extend beyond what can be achieved with medicines alone," said Dr. Michael Okun of the National Parkinson Foundation.