A new study has shown that electrical stimulation to parts of the brain are more effective at alleviating the symptoms of Parkinson's disease than drugs alone.
A team of German researchers at Christian Albrechts University in Kiel say that for some Parkinson's sufferers the neurostimulation of the subthalamic nucleus of the brain, which controls movement, is a powerful treatment that alleviates the burden of advanced Parkinson's disease.
Figures suggest as many as 1 million people in the United States suffer from Parkinson's, which is a chronic and progressive movement disorder that causes tremors, stiffness, slowness of movements, impaired balance and coordination.
Although drugs help to control the symptoms to some extent, they are not as effective over the long term.
Lead author, Dr. Guenther Deuschl, professor of neurology and chairman of the department of neurology at the University, says deep brain stimulation improves the quality of life in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease at a stage when medical treatment is no longer able to improve quality of life.
For the study the researchers recruited 156 people with advanced Parkinson's disease, all were under 75 years old, and were randomly assigned to receive either deep brain stimulation or medications.
Deep brain stimulation entails placing a thin wire to carry electrical currents deep within the subthalamic region of the brain.
The wire is then attached to a deep brain stimulator, which sends an electrical current to that area of the brain.
This action temporarily shuts down the activities of the brain cells in that area of the brain, and blocks the abnormal signals that cause the tremors and other symptoms.
Previous studies have also shown that using implanted electrodes to apply high-frequency electrical stimulation to the brain can improve symptoms, but whether the technique worked better than drugs was questionable, or if the surgery involved in implanting the electrodes was worth the risk.
The study included 156 volunteers from 10 medical centers in Germany and Austria.