Something I haven't heard of before from the pduk List.
                   Carole

--- Martin Purchase <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> The following article appeared in Scotland on Sunday
> 9-1-00
>
> Electric shock treatment helps Parkinson’s sufferers to
> walk
>
>
> By Tom Peterkin
>
> SCIENTISTS have developed a revolutionary treatment for
> Parkinson’s disease
> using magnetic energy to stimulate the brain.
>
> Professor Trevor Stone of Glasgow University and his
> Hungarian colleague Dr
> Judit Mally say disabled sufferers have regained the
> ability to walk after
> receiving the pioneering treatment.
>
> Nearly 300 patients have been recipients of the new
> technique, which uses a
> small magnetic coil to pass high-speed pulses of
> electrical power into the
> brain.
>
> A study carried out by Stone and Mally for the Journal of
> Neuroscience
> Research revealed there was a marked improvement in the
> condition for up to
> six months after a week’s treatment.
>
> More than 120,000 people in the UK have the disease and
> the figure is
> rising. More people are diagnosed over the age of 60, but
> it is estimated
> that one in 20 are under 40 when diagnosed. The boxer
> Muhammad Ali is
> probably the most high profile sufferer.
>
> It is a common progressive neurological disorder that
> results from a
> degeneration of nerve cells in a region of the brain that
> controls
> movement. The symptoms of the debilitating illness
> include slow movement,
> the inability to move, rigid limbs, a shuffling gait and
> a stooped
> posture.
>
> Sufferers often also show reduced facial expression and
> can cause
> personality changes, dementia and speech impairments.
>
> Mally, of the Elizabeth Hospital in Sopron, Hungary,
> said: "Treatment only
> takes one minute twice a day. It is totally painless and
> it lasts for six
> months. After six months we can repeat the treatment.
>
>
>
> "We have observed an excellent functional improvement in
> patients. For
> example, a patient, who could not stand up from a chair
> was able to get up
> after treatment."
>
> At the moment the new technique is only available in
> Hungary, but Stone is
> keen to attract funding to use his expertise to bring the
> treatment over to
> Scotland. He said: "The value of this technique is an
> exciting development,
> and Dr Mally and I are trying to attract funds to pilot
> the technique in
> Scotland."
>
> Transcranial magnetic stimulation has shown encouraging
> results in the
> treatment of depression and migraine, but until now its
> potential for
> treating Parkinson’s patients has been neglected.
>
> A small magnetic coil is placed close to the head and
> high speed pulses of
> power – or tiny electric shocks – are passed into the
> brain.
>
> It is thought that the pulses stimulate the brain cells
> affected by
> Parkinson’s.
>
> Mally explained: "Patients with Parkinson’s have an
> obstruction in the
> brain, which stops them from starting a movement. The
> patient thinks he
> wants to start walking, for example, but the obstruction
> prevents him from
> doing so. The performance of the movement is very
> difficult. Somehow the
> pulses overcome this obstruction."
>
> She added: "We have found that the effectiveness of the
> treatment depends
> on the frequency and the intensity of the electromagnetic
> field and the
> direction of the treatment is also very important. This
> is a very new way
> of treating patients with electricity and it is exciting
> that it appears to
> be so successful."
>
> Stone added: "It is this inability to move that patients
> find most
> distressing, but if we give them just a little treatment
> then they find
> they can keep walking.
>
> "The magnetic field stimulates fibres in the brain and
> causes them to start
> talking to each other, which they cease doing when
> somebody has
> Parkinson’s."
>
> Stone and Mally are hopeful that their method will prove
> to be more
> successful and less harmful than existing drug therapies,
> which lead to
> unpleasant side effects such as confusion, hallucinations
> and fluctuations
> in long-term ability to perform movements.
>
> At the moment there is still no known cure for the
> disease, but drug
> treatments result in improvements in the condition in the
> short term.
>
>
>
>
>
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