Throughout history, treatments for Parkinson's disease have been informed by the technology available at the time. Ablation was widespread until medicines that provided superior effectiveness were discovered. Deep brain stimulation -not a new technology when it came into use as a PD treatment in the 1990s, but one whose potential had not been realized -provided further improvements, allowing for treatment when medications ceased to work. Deep brain stimulation allowed for a very powerful tool in the treatment of Parkinson's disease, but not one that was without risks. As our understanding of the brain becomes more sophisticated, the mechanisms by which deep brain stimulation works are becoming more clear, allowing it to be used more effectively, with fewer side effects, and with less risk of harm to the patient during surgery and after.
With this paper, we examined the literature on deep brain stimulation in order to answer the following questions: how does deep brain stimulation work in the treatment of Parkinson's disease, how effective is deep brain stimulation in treating Parkin...
...e in the brain to deliver electrical stimulation to targeted areas that control movement (mayoclinic.com, 2013).
...ions, deep brain stimulation and therapies, doctors are prepared to help the patient prepare for the road ahead (“Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research). Although researchers are working hard to find a cure, the future for patients with this disease is not bright. We can only hope that one day there will be a discovery to help those suffering from this disease.
Varanese, S., Birnbaum, Z., Rossi, R., & Di Rocco, A. (2010). Treatment of Advanced Parkinson's Disease. Parkinson's Disease.
Goldmann, David R., and David A. Horowitz. American College of Physicians Home Medical Guide to Parkinson's Disease. New York: Dorling Kindersley Pub., 2000. Print.
With more than 200,000 US cases per year, Parkinson’s disease has become a major part
Even if optogenetics remains as purely a research tool and does not give rise to beneficial effects directly in our species, it has still offered humans an unparalleled look into the function and dysfunction of the nervous system. Optogenetics has been adopted in laboratories around the world and enabled scientists to increase or decrease the activity of exclusive brain expanses on command. Great insight has been obtained through the use of this research tool and a great deal more
Research Updates. University of Rochester Medical Center. November 10, 2008. National Institutes of Health. February 6, 2009. < http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/neurology/nih-registry/research/index.cfm>.
Parkinson’s disease is a chronic, progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterised by resting tremor, slowed movements, rigidity and postural instability (Casey G, 2013). It is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer’s (Martin and Mills, 2012). There is a great variability in reported incidence rates, probably due to difference in diagnostic criteria and case ascertainment, with reported rates in Australia and in Western countries ranging from 8.6 to 19.0 per 100,000 population (J Macphee and D Stewart, 2012). The two main brain structures affected by Parkinson’s are the substantia nigra pars compacta, which is located in the midbrain and other parts of the basal ganglia, w...
Langston, J. W. "Current Theories on the Cause of Parkinson’s Disease. " Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry. 1989, suppl. ,pp. 13-i7.
Parkinson's Disease is a perpetual, dynamic, neurodegenerative sickness of the elderly for the most part influencing individuals at the age of 60. Nearly 5 million people are suffering from this disease all over the world and 1.2 million people are suffering in United States and Canada with approximately 480 per million people are newly diagnosed each year. This disease not only affects the patient but also it is a cause of worry among patient's loved ones and family members. Though, the news of the recent disease diagnosis haunt every individual and his nears and dears but due to several support groups and societies and several scientific breakthroughs have put a ray of hope in the life of individual living with Parkinson's disease.
Technology and the Brain As a college student, using the internet and technology is a daily task. Everything you need for your classes: schedules, homework, quizzes, and even tests are all online. The debate on technology and the brain suggests that technology may have an effect on the brain, effect multi-tasking, and cause addiction. Brain Activity
With the advent of this new technology doctors and psychiatrists may have finally reached the light at the end of the tunnel. Well not exactly, but the state of the art new technology, Optogenetics, does offer an innovative new approach to the study of the brain, and, more importantly, the treatment of patients. The use of light had been surmised to be a valuable way to control cells many years prior by Francis Crick (Crick 2024), but no one had been able to pull all the pieces together. While it’s by no means perfectly safe: there are still uncertainties about the long-term effects and the level of specificity it offers can only control groups of neurons up to .3 (mm^3) instead of individual neurons. Optogenetics still provides benefits over our current pharmaceutical and surgical technologies with its specificity, both temporally and spatially. In light of these facts, doctors should consider optogenetics as a safe and efficacious way to treat neurological disorders unresponsive to current methods.
Parkinson’s disease, a chronic, progressive, and neurodegenerative brain disorder affecting body movement, known to have no cure, yet has treatments that will help in managing the disease. This disease is named after James Parkinson, an English physician who described this illness. Approximately one million people in the United States are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease (What is Parkinson’s, n.d.). This disease is identified to be slow in progression and symptoms of this will only worsen as time goes on. Parkinson’s is the second most common neurodegenerative disease (Simpson, Murray, & Eccles, 2010).
Brain Lateralization is a complex and ongoing process by which differing regions of the brain “take over” the functioning of specific behaviors and cognitive skills. Lateralization literally means that certain functions are located (in part or total) on one side of the brain.
As the human body goes through different experiences, the brain grows, develops, and changes according to the environmental situations it has been exposed to. Some of these factors include drugs, stress, hormones, diets, and sensory stimuli. [1] Neuroplasticity can be defined as the ability of the nervous system to respond to natural and abnormal stimuli experienced by the human body. The nervous system then reorganizes the brain’s structure and changes some of its function to theoretically repair itself by forming new neurons. [2] Neuroplasticity can occur during and in response to many different situations that occur throughout life. Some examples of these situations are learning, diseases, and going through therapy after an injury.