An agent under consideration for use in PET imaging combats neuronal death to relieve Parkinsonian symptoms in animal models, according to a study published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. The movement-related symptoms of Parkinson's disease, including muscle rigidity and tremors, are...
Mild-to-moderate Parkinson's disease patients who practice Tai Chi were found to experience significant benefits, including better posture, fewer falls, and improved walking ability, researchers from the Oregon Research Institute (ORI) reported in NEJM (New England Journal of Medicine). The...
Parkinson's disease is marked by the abnormal accumulation of α-synuclein and the early loss of dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra region of the brain. A polymorphism in the promotor of α-synuclein gene known as NACP-Rep1 has been implicated as a risk factor for the disease. Now...
A method of classifying brain atrophy patterns in Alzheimer's disease patients using MRIs can also detect cognitive decline in Parkinson's disease, according to a new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Researchers also found that higher...
Current thinking about Parkinson's disease is that it's a disorder of mitochondria, the energy-producing organelles inside cells, causing neurons in the brain's substantia nigra to die or become impaired. A study from Children's Hospital Boston now shows that genetic mutations causing a...
Playing computer-based physical therapy games can help people with Parkinson's disease improve their gait and balance, according to a new pilot study led by the UCSF School of Nursing and Red Hill Studios, a California serious games developer. More than half the subjects in the three-month...
In a new study published in the Journal of Parkinson's Disease, Japanese researchers report that the ability to ride a bike can differentiate between atypical parkinsonism and Parkinson's disease, regardless of the environment or situations for bicycling. Atypical parkinsonisms are disorders...
Looking online for medical information? Viewers beware, doctors caution. After reviewing the most frequently watched YouTube videos about movement disorders, a group of neurologists found that the people in the videos often do not have a movement disorder. As described in a Letter to the Editor...
Thanks to a new diagnostic imaging technique, physicians now have an objective test to evaluate patients for parkinsonian syndromes, such as Parkinson's disease. Northwestern Memorial Hospital is among the first institutions in the country to offer DaTscan™, the only FDA-approved imaging agent...
Traumatic brain injury has entered the public's consciousness as the silent, signature wound brought back by many of our military warriors from Iraq and Afghanistan. But such injuries don't only happen in warfare, they happen to civilians too. Think car crashes, a slip and fall, two football...
A new study finds that a protein key to Parkinson's disease has likely been mischaracterized. The protein, alpha-synuclein, appears to have a radically different structure in healthy cells than previously thought, challenging existing disease paradigms and suggesting a new therapeutic...
People with Parkinson's disease who go to a neurologist for their care are more likely to live longer, less likely to be placed in a nursing home and less likely to break a hip than people who go to a primary care physician, according to a study published in the August 10, 2011, online issue of...
Patients suffering REM sleep behaviour disorders dream nightmares in which they are attacked and pursued, with the particularity that they express them by screaming, crying, punching and kicking while sleeping. Lancet Neurology has published the third consecutive work in five years about the...
T-ing up a new target for Parkinson's disease treatment Parkinson disease (PD) affects 1-2% of the population over the age of 65 years. It results from loss or loss of function of nerve cells in the brain that coordinate movement. As a result, the hallmark symptoms of PD are trembling in hands...
There are many books/essays that are imprinted in the history because they were instrumental in creating a drastic change in the society. We can name many books like The Republic by Plato, Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels and On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, and many essays like...
A hand-held device that strengthens the muscles involved in swallowing can address a serious symptom of Parkinson's disease, according to a new University of Florida study. In what researchers believe is the largest randomized trial of a behavioral swallowing treatment in patients with...
Care for Parkinson's patients can cost between 5,240 and 19,620 Euro a year. This has been shown in a study done in six European countries by the European Cooperative Network for Research, Diagnosis and Therapy of Parkinson's Disease (EuroPa). The results are presented today at the European...
Pramipexole, a dopamine agonist, improves depressive symptoms in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), and has the potential to become an important antidepressant treatment for these patients. The Article published Online First, and in the June issue of The Lancet Neurology, is the first trial...
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have found new evidence that the basal ganglia and the cerebellum, two important areas in the central nervous system, are linked together to form an integrated functional network. The findings are available online this week in the Proceedings of the...
UCSF scientists have used a novel cell-based strategy to treat motor symptoms in rats with a disease designed to mimic Parkinson's disease. The strategy suggests a promising approach, the scientists say, for treating symptoms of Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases and...