Deep brain stimulation can aid Parkinson's sufferers
Sending small pulses of electricity to the brain can relieve the symptoms of Parkinson's disease and other neurological conditions, writes David Tan
Wires inserted into the brain delivering jolts of electricity able to alter movement and behaviour may sound like the stuff of a sci-fi movie. But for people suffering from certain neurological conditions, this scenario is real and offers a much-needed source of relief.
Over the past two decades, doctors have turned to deep brain stimulation (DBS) to help people with Parkinson's disease, and movement disorders like essential tremor and primary dystonia, a debilitating condition that causes painful, twisting muscle spasms.
It's already an established treatment for advanced stages of Parkinson's that medication alone can no longer treat. Although it's not a cure, and doesn't halt disease progression, for certain patients it can vastly improve symptoms such as tremors and muscle rigidity that could make the patient dependent on a caregiver.
But the therapy is no longer seen as a last resort. It's also being applied to earlier stages of Parkinson's. Scientists are also exploring other applications for the therapy: to treat obesity, Alzheimer's disease and psychiatric conditions such as depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Chronic stimulation of sub-cortical structures was first used in the early 1950s, but the modern form of DBS, developed in 1987, can be attributed to Alim-Louis Benabid and Pierre Pollak of the University of Grenoble's department of neurosurgery and neurology in France.