How Brain Pacemakers Treat Parkinson's Disease

the_newsbeagle writes Pharmaceutical research for neuropsychiatric disorders hasn't produced many breakthroughs lately, which may explain why there's so much excitement around "electroceutical" research. That buzzy new field encompasses deep brain stimulation (DBS), in which an implanted stimulator sends little jolts through the neural tissue. DBS has become an accepted therapy for Parkinson's and other motor disorders, even though researchers haven't really understood how it works. Now, new research may have found the mechanism of action in Parkinson's patients: The stimulation reduces an exaggerated synchronization of neuron activity in the motor cortex.

Comments

Re:No new treatments?

[Jason Levine]

My wife's grandfather passed away due to complications from Parkinson's. I never got to meet him before the disease started, but it was heartbreaking to see him go from able to walk on his own using a walker to being unable to move a leg without help. He would fall down and being unable to help you life him back up. (FYI, it can really hurt your back trying to lift up a 150 or so pound man who can't help by supporting his own weight at all.) In the end, he couldn't even get out of bed.

I'm not sure which is worse, Parkinson's or Alzheimer's (where you slowly lose chunks of your memory/yourself until there's just an empty shell left). Any progress towards treating these disorders is fantastic.

Optogenetics

[jihema]

Another approach called optogenetics is developed at the University of Otago: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories...