Patients with Parkinson’s disease may benefit from receiving neurostimulating brain implants earlier in the course of the disease, according to researchers.
Treatment with neurostimulators, which delivery mild electrical pulses to targeted areas in the brain, are already standard for patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease, but researchers suggested that it may benefit patients "at an earlier stage than current recommendations suggest."
The research, funded in part by medical device giant Medtronic (NYSE:MDT), found that early-stage Parkinson’s patients reported a 26% improvement in quality of life when they were given neurostimulation implants, compared with a 1% decrease in quality of life among patients who were given standard medical treatment.
Many doctors have been recommending neurostimulation therapy for patients with early stages of movement complications associated with Parkinson’s, but the study gives them added confidence to stray from the medical standard, doctors told MedPage Today.
