 |
 |
CURRENT SCIENCE REVIEWS By Joe Bruman June 1997 p. 1 of 1 Brown P et al; Brain 1997;120:401-408: Objective measurement of voluntary muscle strength in 7 PD patients suggests that the 10 Hz action tremor contributes to weakness when normal medication is withheld. Lancet, 19 Apr 1997: (news item): Sleep study of 37 male and 24 female PD patients found numerous episodes during REM sleep of running, pushing, punching, kicking, or choking the bed partner. Clonazepam seems to solve the problem and a bigger study is planned. Daniele A et al; Lancet, 26 Apr 1997:1222-1223: Thanks to serendipity, the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) agonist Zolpidem, usually given for insomnia, proved effective against PD symptoms in 6 out of 10 patients, without the side effects, including dyskinesia, of levodopa. The discovery subject, with advanced PD, has gone 5 years on Zolpidem alone, without dopaminergic medication. Venneri A et al; J Neur N'surg Psych 1997;62:410=413: 25 early-PD patients (without dementia) were not as good as 22 controls in memory of remote dates and events. Memory is independent of dementia. Castiello U, Bennett K; Brain 1997;120:593-604: Testing a claim that simultaneous but diverse movement is impaired in PD, they found 11 PD patients did about as well as 11 control subjects, but suggest it is due to autonomous compensatory use of alternate pathways. Tandberg E et al; Arch Neur 1997;54:625-630: They examined 245 PD patients for depression, finding it to be more likely in those with cognitive deficit. Fazzini D et al; Neur 1997;48:1273-1277: Since the sudden popularity of pallidotomy is so recent, extensive long-term follow-up data are still scarce. In 11 patients tracked up to 4 years, they found persistent improvement in motor symptoms and dyskinesia, and relatively stable levodopa dosage requirement. De Rijk M et al; Neur 1997;48:1277-1281: Correlation of geographically scattered community PD surveys is hampered by varying diagnostic criteria. Authors suggest a simple 2-out-of-3 (resting tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity) criterion. Shinotoh H et al; Neur 1997;48;1282-1286: Following earlier reports that the antiepileptic Lamotrigine is effective against PD symptoms, they did a double-blind, placebo- controlled, crossover, 1-day study on 14 PD patients, and another 3-month study on 12 PD patients. In both, they found Lamotrigine no better than placebo. J. R. Bruman (818) 789-3694 3527 Cody Road Sherman Oaks CA 91403