MR-guided focused ultrasound is a new technique that involves focusing 1024 beams of ultrasound through the skull to a focal point in the brain, very much like using the sun and a magnifying glass to burn a hole in a sheet of paper.
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Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is being increasingly explored as a therapeutic tool for movement disorders associated with deficient inhibition throughout the central nervous system. This includes treatment of focal hand dystonia (FHD), characterized by involuntary movement of the fingers either curling into the palm or extending outward.
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St. Jude Medical, Inc., a global medical device company, today announced European CE Mark approval of its Brio, Libra and LibraXP deep brain stimulation systems for managing the symptoms of intractable primary and secondary dystonia, a neurological movement disorder that causes a person's muscles to contract and involuntarily spasm, reducing the ability to control movement.
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A pair of studies tells the tale of how a neuroscientist at Mayo Clinic in Florida helped to discover the first African-American family to have inherited the rare movement disorder dystonia, which causes repetitive muscle contractions and twisting, resulting in abnormal posture.
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A team of scientists and clinicians at UC San Francisco has discovered how to detect abnormal brain rhythms associated with Parkinson's by implanting electrodes within the brains of people with the disease.
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Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Otsuka) and H. Lundbeck A/S (Lundbeck) announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved ABILIFY MAINTENA (aripiprazole) for extended- release injectable suspension, an intramuscular (IM) depot formulation indicated for the treatment of schizophrenia.
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Sapiens Steering Brain Stimulation B.V. (Sapiens), an emerging medical technology company developing brain stimulation products, today announced that it has raised €7.5 m from the Dutch investment group INKEF Capital, in a further extension of their Series A financing round. The proceeds will be used for the development of its Steering Brain Stimulation implant and procedure solutions to treat Parkinson's disease (PD) and other functional brain disorders.
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Psychogenic diseases, formerly known as 'hysterical' illnesses, can have many severe symptoms such as painful cramps or paralysis but without any physical explanation. However, new research from the University of Cambridge and UCL (University College London) suggests that individuals with psychogenic disease, that is to say physical illness that stems from emotional or mental stresses, do have brains that function differently.
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The Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center in Phoenix has launched a new clinic aimed at streamlining the process for the growing number of patients who are potential candidates for Deep Brain Stimulation.
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Allergan, Inc. announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved BOTOX (onabotulinumtoxinA) for the treatment of overactive bladder (OAB) with symptoms of urge urinary incontinence, urgency and frequency in adults who have had an inadequate response to or are intolerant of an anticholinergic medication.
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A groundbreaking, international clinical trial of an iron chelation drug, deferiprone, to treat the rare and devastating neurodegenerative disease, pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration (PKAN), began last month at the trial's only North American site, Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland.
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The first U.S. patient to enroll in Functional Neuromodulation's ADvance Study was successfully implanted with a deep brain stimulation (DBS) system. ADvance will evaluate the safety and potential clinical benefit of DBS of the fornix (DBS-f), a major inflow and output pathway in the brain's memory circuit, for patients with mild Alzheimer's.
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Improvements in dystonia achieved with deep-brain stimulation are usually sustained for at least 5 years, shows follow up of a randomized trial.
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Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disease that produces weakness and fatiguability of muscles. It affects between 1 and 7 people per 10,000, according to the best statistics.
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Michelle Nimmerrichter was only 20 years old when she suffered a stroke that left her in a coma and on a ventilator.
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Fewer than 100 people in the world are known to be affected by a movement disorder called rapid-onset dystonia-parkinsonism (RDP), but its symptoms are life-changing. Seemingly normal young people are suddenly and dramatically unable to control movement of their arms or legs and have trouble speaking or swallowing. A normal life is nearly impossible.
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Alternating hemiplegia of childhood (AHC) is a rare disorder that usually begins in infancy, with intermittent episodes of paralysis and stiffness, first affecting one side of the body, then the other. Symptoms mysteriously appear and disappear, again and again, and affected children often experience dozens of episodes per week. As they get older, children fall progressively behind their peers in both intellectual abilities and motor skills, and more than half develop epilepsy.
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Researchers have identified de novo mutations in the ATP1A3 gene that they believe are responsible for a sporadic childhood paralysis known as alternating hemiplegia of childhood.
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Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and H. Lundbeck A/S today announced results from a Phase 3 clinical trial evaluating the efficacy, safety and tolerability of once-monthly aripiprazole intramuscular (IM) depot formulation for the maintenance treatment of adults with schizophrenia.
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Deep brain stimulation, increasingly recognized as an effective therapy for certain cases of Parkinson's disease, dystonia and tremor, also may help patients who suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder or depression that fails to respond to other treatments.
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