Pilot study finds that DBS slows the progression of resting tremor in early-stage PD

[jeffreyn]

“The field of DBS therapy for Parkinson’s disease is moving toward earlier stages of treatment ...”

ParkinsonsNewsToday article:

parkinsonsnewstoday.com/201...

Research paper (not open access):

n.neurology.org/content/ear...

[HeartSong]

Is it possible that a significant part of the motivation behind doing DBS on younger patients is that younger patients have a better survival rate from any type of surgery simply because they are younger, healthier, and stronger? Doing more of the DBS procedures on younger people would put it in a much more favorable light than doing more of the procedures on older people.

[jeffreyn in reply to HeartSong]

My understanding (from the article) is that the FDA originally approved DBS "to treat patients with advanced Parkinson’s who no longer respond to available medications and are unable to adequately manage their symptoms". More recently (due to price drops?) the approval has been expanded "to patients with mid-stage disease who also respond poorly to standard medications".

What the pilot study has found is that DBS seems to slow the progression of resting tremor in early-stage PD (i.e. it does much more than just provide symptomatic relief). If these results are confirmed in the upcoming (and much larger) Phase 3 trial, then I would imagine that this would justify a further expansion of the FDA approval to cover early-stage PD.