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A new multi-center study, including neurologists and neurosurgeons from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, reveals that Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) – a treatment for Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients with medication-resistant muscle movement impairment or tremors – can improve those symptoms and reduce medications for patients implanted with the device. The study appears Online First in Lancet Neurology.
Before she could seek to convince the world that her computer model of a key brain circuit explains a fundamental, 80-year-old mystery of neuroscience with potential relevance to Parkinson’s disease, Stephanie Jones sought to convince Christopher Moore. The new Brown neuroscience professors are now close collaborators, but when they first started talking about the beta oscillations of the cortex, Moore thought Jones was plain wrong, if not a bit nuts.
Results from the first multi-center pilot study of deep brain stimulation (DBS) for major depressive disorder were published online today by the Journal of Neurosurgery. The study, conducted at three research facilities in Canada, was designed to replicate and build upon an earlier study by Dr. Andres Lozano and Dr. Helen Mayberg which was published in the journal Neuron in 2005. Sponsored by St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE:STJ), the study demonstrates significant improvement in depression symptoms among patients who are highly treatment resistant.
While deep brain stimulation has gained recognition by referring physicians as a treatment for Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders, just half of the patients they recommend are appropriate candidates to begin this relatively new therapy immediately, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York say.
One decade after receiving implants that stimulate areas of their brains, patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) appear to sustain improvement in motor function, although part of the initial benefit wore off mainly because of progressive loss of benefit in other functions, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Tom Keilen could not grab a glass of water without spilling it all over himself. Plagued with uncontrollable tremors at just 57 years old, the Michigan resident was fighting a battle against an aggressive case of Parkinson’s disease. He could not work at his job as a plastering contractor. His arms would flail uncontrollably, and the medications usually prescribed for Parkinson’s did not help enough. Keilen sought help at the University of Michigan, where after an extensive assessment, he underwent a deep brain stimulation surgery. Included in this report is a video discussion of deep brain stimulation along with an interview of Tom.
Activating neurons in a brain structure linked to disappointment increased depression-like behaviors in rats, while suppressing the neurons’ activity reduced the behaviors, according to an NIMH-funded study. The findings help to explain previous research linking this brain structure to depression in humans and highlight a cellular process that had not been previously explored in mood disorders research. The study was published in the February 24, 2011, issue of Nature.
A new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device that guides surgeons as they implant electrodes into the brains of people with Parkinson’s disease and other neurological disorders could change the way this surgery, called deep brain stimulation, is performed at medical centers across the country, according to a group of doctors at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Deep brain stimulation can help to alleviate patients’ symptoms, and the new device will make the procedure faster and more comfortable for the patient. It grew out of a home-grown technique developed by a team of UCSF neurosurgeons and radiologists at UCSF.
Patients suffering from dystonia, an uncommon yet potentially crippling movement disorder, get better results if they begin deep brain stimulation therapy sooner rather than later, according to an international study published in the March issue of the Journal of Neurology. Dystonia causes muscles to contract with the affected body part twisting involuntarily and symptoms ranging from mild to severe.
St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center’s Barrow Neurological Institute has received a $10.1 million donation. This is the largest single gift in the organization’s history and one of the biggest ever given to any Arizona hospital. The one-time cash donation from philanthropist Marian H. Rochelle to St. Joseph’s Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix will be used to explore a new medical frontier for psychiatric and motor disorders by using novel treatments including advanced “deep brain stimulation.”
