Excerpt: "The classical message today about Parkinson’s disease (PD) is that it is a "neurodegenerative“ progressive disease and that treatments, drugs and neurosurgery can only reduce its symptoms but not stop its progression.
I would like to make here a series of points questioning some established ideas about this disease, to test if we are facing scientific facts or dogmas.
The idea that interventions can only be symptomatic is questionable and represents a most severe emotional load for the patients, a sort of Damocles sword hanging over their heads and threatening the essence of what they are also has to be reconsidered."
My neurologist looks at the current status of PD treatment as only the current status, and expects treatment for PD to improve, hopefully to even a cure. He especially encourages exercise and keeping up with current research.
I hope the safety and long term efficacy of the various forms of focused ultrasound will be well established within the next few years. If that happens, FUS may become a first line of defense instead of a last resort. That would be incredible.
1) "Half the patients could stop their drug intake." IOW, 50% could not; PTT FUS did not alleviate their need for drugs.
2) "Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), were not in position to liberate the thalamocortical network well enough to prevent the maintenance/progression of the parkinsonian TCD." Which was the previous intervention seen to save PD patients.
3) "That abnormal cell loss happens in the parkinsonian brain is obvious." When is too much too much? "I would prefer...the more adequately descriptive and neutral terms of cell loss or cell death." Splitting hairs to avoid emotional discomfort of the PD patient?
4) "stress accelerates neuronal loss and exaggerates motor symptoms in an animal model of Parkinson’s disease" Logical assumption and therefore applicable to all PD patients.
5) " nigral dopaminergic cells are very fragile, a fact which makes their decrease along the years unsurprising. " which is why PD is predominantly an old age disease....neuron wise.
6) "the demonstration in the literature of a strong placebo effect in Parkinson’s disease." does that also apply to PTT FUS?
7) "As for Parkinson-Plus syndromes, characterized by extensive and widespread cell losses in the whole brain, there is no explanation yet as to their cause." Can we say somewhat the same thing about PD in general?
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