Device could give hope to Parkinson’s patients
Health‘Brain pacemakers’ reduce tremors but raise risks, study shows

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By The Associated Press

Published: January 7, 2009

CHICAGO — Parkinson’s sufferers who had electrodes implanted in their brains improved substantially more than those who took only medicine, according to the biggest test yet of deep brain stimulation.

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The study, which followed patients for six months, offers the most hopeful news to date for Parkinson’s sufferers. The new technique reduced tremors, rigidity and flailing of the limbs and allowed people to move freely for nearly five extra hours a day.

But the research also revealed higher-than-expected risks. About 40 percent of the patients who received these "brain pacemakers” suffered serious side effects, including a surprising number of falls with injuries.

"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, outside Chicago. "Patients are feeling so much better, they forget they still have Parkinson’s.”

Results varied

There is no cure for Parkinson’s disease, which affects more than 1 million Americans. Patients suffer from increasingly severe tremors and periodically rigid limbs as their brains stop making dopamine, a chemical needed for movement. They can have trouble walking, speaking and writing, and often struggle with depression.

Standard treatments include drugs to stimulate dopamine. But over time, the medicines can produce flailing movements that are as troubling as Parkinson’s tremors.

The latest findings were published in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association. The researchers studied 255 people with advanced Parkinson’s in U.S. hospitals. . "You don’t want to underestimate or overestimate the risks,” Weaver said. "It still is an individual decision between a patient and a physician.”