Parkinson's Disease May Be Treated By Electric Current

Main Category: Parkinson's Disease
Also Included In: Neurology / Neuroscience
Article Date: 25 Mar 2006 - 0:00 PDT

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A simple and efficient method that facilitates Parkinson's disease treatment has been developed by researchers of the Institute of Human Brain, Russian Academy of Sciences. Influence of feeble electric current on the brain via electrodes laid on the head skin - the so-called transcranial electric polarization (TCEP) - reduces muscle tone and partially restores patients' movements. In combination with antiparkinsonian drug intake, TCEP reduces their side effect.

Parkinson's disease is a chronic progressive degenerative disease of the central nervous system. Its main symptoms are - voluntary movements disorder, increased muscle tone (rigidity) and trembling (tremor). The disease was for the first time described by an English physician James Parkinson in 1817 in his "Essay on Shaking Palsy". The origin of the disease has not been fully investigated yet.

Today, Parkinson's disease is no longer the destiny of elderly people, young people become increasingly its victims. This was declared by Igor Zavolokov, head of neurology department, clinics of the Institute of Human Brain, Russian Academy of Sciences. According to him, such conclusion was made by the St. Petersburg neurologists based on their experience of patient management. "Parkinson's disease is rather widespread, said the physician, about 1 percent of people older than 60 and about 5 percent of people older than 80 suffer from it, however, recently the disease is more and more often registered with the 30-year old patients. Not long ago, a 19-year old girl was diagnosed with this disease." According to the researchers' opinion, this situation is due to increasing negative impact of the environment and genetic anomalies accumulation.

The drugs that parkinsonism patients have to take lifelong often have strong side effects and therefore do not relieve the patient's state too much. Besides, the drugs lose their effectiveness with time. That is why researchers and physicians are in constant search for new remedies.

Transcranial electric polarization may become one of such remedies, according to the opinion of researchers from the Institute of Human Brain, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg. The experimental group involved 110 patients with stages of Parkinson's disease from 1 to 4, 80 patients were included in the main group where TCEP was applied, and the remaining 30 made the reference group and received only drugs. The patients from the main group did not give up the drugs either but in addition they received three to four sessions of electric therapy every other day. Continuous current of 2 milliampere acted for 15 minutes via cathode and anode on the head skin. The patients' state was assessed judging by intensity of main symptoms - movement rate, muscle tone and tremor - prior to the sessions and after them.

According to physicians' observations, TCEP application resulted in reduction of reduntant muscle tone, increase in movement rate and also decrease of drug's side effects. The only thing TCEP had no influence on was tremor. Nevertheless, these are considerable results. Effectiveness of procedure influence on movements and muscle tone varied from 100 to 63.3 percent depending on the stage of disease. The TCEP session effect remained for half a year to a year.

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