Research indicates new hope for Parkinsons disease sufferers Research at the University of Otago indicates remarkable success with a new approach to treating Parkinsons disease that holds out new hope for dramatically improved movement and quality of life for sufferers. Parkinsons disease causes the progressive degeneration of the dopamine-producing cells in the brain leading tosymptoms that include tremors, stiffness and rigidity, and slowness of movement. The disease cannot be cured and the best treatments so far include drugs and deep brain stimulation. Now however, using optogenetics - a method of treatment that stimulates the brain by shining blue light onto the affected area - scientists, working with animal models, are showing much improved ability to recover movements. Otago School of Medical Sciences neuroscientist, Dr Louise Parr-Brownlie, whose research has just been published in the Journal of Neuroscience, explains that the results indicate better outcomes than treatments commonly used to address symptoms caused by Parkinsons disease. The results so far achieved offer a new treatment site for deep brain stimulation that may be more effective in addressing symptoms in Parkinsons disease patients, says Dr Parr-Brownlie. If our trials are successful this will represent the first big breakthrough in the treatment of … Continue reading →

By Amy Norton HealthDay Reporter WEDNESDAY, Jan. 28, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- A new study -- this one involving patients with Parkinson's disease -- adds another layer of insight to the well-known "placebo effect." That's the phenomenon in which people's symptoms improve after taking an inactive substance simply because they believe the treatment will work. The small study, involving 12 people, suggests that Parkinson's patients seem to feel better -- and their brains may actually change -- if they think they're taking a costly medication. On average, patients had bigger short-term improvements in symptoms like tremor and muscle stiffness when they were told they were getting the costlier of two drugs. In reality, both "drugs" were nothing more than saline, given by injection. But the study patients were told that one drug was a new medication priced at $1,500 a dose, while the other cost just $100 -- though, the researchers assured them, the medications were expected to have similar effects. Yet, when patients' movement symptoms were evaluated in the hours after receiving the fake drugs, they showed greater improvements with the pricey placebo. What's more, MRI scans showed differences in the patients' brain activity, depending on which placebo they'd … Continue reading →

Parkinson's Disease patients secretly treated with a placebo instead of their regular medication performed better when told they were receiving a more expensive version of the "drug," researchers reported in an unprecedented study that involved real patients. The research shows that the well-documented "placebo effect" actual symptom relief brought about by a sham treatment or medication can be enhanced by adding information about cost, according to the lead author of the study. It is the first time that concept has been demonstrated using people with a real illness, in this case Parkinson's, a progressive neurological disease that has no cure, according to an expert not involved in the study. "The potentially large benefit of placebo, with or without price manipulations, is waiting to be untapped for patients with [Parkinson's Disease], as well as those with other neurologic and medical diseases," the authors wrote in a study published online in the journal Neurology. But deceiving actual patients in a research study raised ethical questions about violating the trust involved in a doctor-patient relationship. Most studies in which researchers conceal their true aims or other information from subjects are conducted with healthy volunteers. This one was subjected to a lengthy review before … Continue reading →