Brain Stimulation
When you hear the words “brain stimulation”, reading or puzzles may come to mind. Several trials of deep brain stimulation have been going on, results point towards beneficial results for early onset Alzheimer’s patients. These tests began working with overweight patients as an appetite suppressant. A small electrode is implanted into the brain in the area that controls appetite. To their surprise, lost memories from over 30 years ago started coming to the patient.
Significant improvement in memory tests was found. In many patients cognitive decline was slowed, and in some patients there was cognitive improvement. It’s questionable whether the benefits are worth the risks, as there are many serious ones. This is an invasive procedure that can cause bleeding if insertion does not go smoothly. Further trials have begun.
"We don't want to over interpret the results and I agree with the cautions on the one hand, but on the other hand the fact that the PET-scanning data looks so good seems pretty exciting to me," said Dr. Richard Lipton, an attending neurologist at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City and principal investigator of the Einstein Aging Study who was not involved in the deep brain stimulation research.
"Alzheimer's is not a disorder where you break even. It's a disorder where you decline . . . This is not the natural history of Alzheimer's. A successful treatment will leave you one year later where you were when you started," he added.
Deep brain stimulation is already used for people with other neurodegenerative diseases, most notably Parkinson's.
The way the Alzheimer's research came into being was a study in serendipity. In 2003, the same research group was working in a different area: using deep brain stimulation in an attempt to control appetite in an obese patient. The results had an unexpected benefit.
AlzCare provides caring treatment for Alzheimer’s patients in Texas.
