Despite clear clinical guidelines, many Parkinson’s disease patients in India are being referred too late for Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), reducing the potential benefits of the procedure, AIIMS experts said.
DBS, a well-established surgical therapy for Parkinson’s, is recommended for carefully selected patients who respond poorly to levodopa, the most effective medicine for managing the disease, develop disabling motor complications such as fluctuations and dyskinesias despite optimised medical therapy, and also develop unpredictable “on-off” periods.
“On” periods are when Parkinson’s symptoms are well controlled with medication, while “off” periods are when the medication effect wears off, and symptoms (like rigidity, tremor, and slowness) reappear.
DBS also reduces medication dose, prevents complications like dyskinesias (medicine-induced abnormal movements), hallucinations, nausea and hypotension. It also helps to reduce multiple medicines, said Dr P Sarat Chandra, Head of …​Despite clear clinical guidelines, many Parkinson’s disease patients in India are being referred too late for Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), reducing the potential benefits of the procedure, AIIMS experts said.
DBS, a well-established surgical therapy for Parkinson’s, is recommended for carefully selected patients who respond poorly to levodopa, the most effective medicine for managing the disease, develop disabling motor complications such as fluctuations and dyskinesias despite optimised medical therapy, and also develop unpredictable “on-off” periods.
“On” periods are when Parkinson’s symptoms are well controlled with medication, while “off” periods are when the medication effect wears off, and symptoms (like rigidity, tremor, and slowness) reappear.
DBS also reduces medication dose, prevents complications like dyskinesias (medicine-induced abnormal movements), hallucinations, nausea and hypotension. It also helps to reduce multiple medicines, said Dr P Sarat Chandra, Head of … ​Latest News [ SOBAN NEWS: International and National ]
