Medical treatment for Parkinson's

Treatment is aimed at abolishing as far as possible the symptoms and disabilities caused by Parkinson's. But these dugs cannot prevent brain cell degeneration.
What the available drugs will do is to reverse the symptoms by replacing the essential chemicals, such as dopamine, necessary for the normal transmission of nerve impulses and control of movements.


At an early stage most patients should be referred to a hospital specialist, usually a neurologist in order to confirm the diagnosis, and to obtain advice about the immediate and future prospects of treatment.


Drug treatment: Patients with Parkinson's have a deficiency of essential dopamine and the excess of acetylcholine. Early treatment consists of drugs called anticholinergics, which diminish acetylcholine and work to restore the balance with dopamine. These drugs are valuable for treating early tremors and rigidity. Also good at controlling salivation and drooling. However these drugs are generally used in younger patients who don't have the added complications of the elderly. Drugs include: Orphenadrin and Benzhexol
Other drug treatments include: levodopa drugs (for moderate and severe Parkinson's), dopamine agonists and selegiline (weak anti-parkinsonian drug)


Combinations of levodopa with carbidopa or benserazide are the most effective drugs. Unwanted side-effects can be reduced by altering the drug dose and timing.
In Parkinson’s disease, degeneration of parts of the basal ganglia causes a lack of dopamine within this part of the brain. The basal ganglia are thus prevented from modifying the nerve pathways that control muscle contraction. As a result, the muscles are overly tense, causing tremor, joint rigidity, and slow movement. Most drug treatments increase the level of dopamine in the brain or oppose the action of acetylcholine.

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However all drug treatments also have their own side-effects, some examples are nausea and vomiting, fainting, Dyskinesia and dystonia, mental confusion and hallucinations and aggressive behaviour.

Gene Therapy: holds considerable potential for the treatment of central nervous system disease. It aims to introduce a protein, which can protect against cell damage or permit the physiological delivery of a deficient neurotransmitter. The strategies for gene therapy techniques have expanded toward the use of factors that induce nerve cell growth in enhancing cell function or preventing cell death.


Surgery is another treatment that consists of either destruction of tiny parts of the brain (stereotactic surgery) or transplantation of dopamine-producing tissue into the brain. Surgery for Parkinson's is rarely recommended. Examples: nigral transplants and fetal tissue transplant. There are ethical problems in obtaining and using fetal donor tissue, and the long-term benefits are not yet known.


However, it's encouraging that robust survival of fetal nigral implants can be achieved within the human brain; these can give a new nerve supply to the damaged nerve cells in the basal ganglia. But it's not known whether those agents that primarily cause the disease will also destroy the graft.


There is far more to the treatment of the patient than just the administration of drugs, for example Physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy are valuable for an effective treatment.


Simple physical movements, such as getting out of a chair, may become increasingly difficult for patients as physical disabilities hinder action. In this case regular exercise is beneficial.
I obtained information from a range of books called: Family doctor guide to Parkinson's disease, Living well with Parkinson's disease and explaining Parkinson's.


Also as I was searching for Parkinson's related videos I found one about Actor Michael J Fox who also suffers from Parkinson's. The video explains his journey with this condition. Currently he has his own campaign called "Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research". The website for this campaign http://www.michaeljfox.org/ includes a section called 'living with Parkinson's' that has useful information on how Parkinson's disease affects the brain. 

The Michael J. Fox Foundation is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease through an aggressively funded research agenda and to ensuring the development of improved therapies for those living with Parkinson’s today.

Michael J Fox believes that if there is a concentrated effort from the Parkinson’s community, elected representatives in Washington, DC, and the general public, researchers can pinpoint the cause of Parkinson’s and uncover a cure within our lifetime. The foundation works with leading Parkinson's experts to determine the most promising areas for research. It's inspiring that Fox has played strongly against his Parkinson's disease by aiming to find a cure, this requires hard work and compassion for the other sufferers of Parkinson's. But also makes the possibility of finding a cure with many other passionate researchers around the world more likely.

Fox teamed up with Nike to produce the Nike Mag shoes. 1500 pairs of Nike MAG shoes were auctioned on eBay to benefit his foundation. An astonishing $4.7 million was raised which will go to the Foundation’s research programs to help speed the search for a cure for Parkinson’s.(4)