“Specialists meet patients: Advanced therapies in Parkinson’s disease”, is the title of the seminar open to patients and their families. The seminar is also open to all those who wish to know more about this disease and is organized by the Neuro Center at Humanitas on Saturday November 26th from 10 to 12 and marks the occasion of the national Day of Parkinson’s.
Participants will meet with the specialists at the Neuro Center that illustrate the latest therapies and will also be available to answer questions.
The Neuro Center is a center specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders, from degenerative diseases to cerebro-vascular, requiring a neurosurgical approach. In addition to clinical work, the center carries out important research aimed to provide the most accurate diagnosis early on and to develop new therapeutic strategies for patients, in light of the results of laboratory research.
The brain pacemaker implantation
Thanks to drug therapy it is possible to control the symptoms of Parkinson’s. Another therapeutic alternative is represented by deep brain stimulation techniques. This calls for the implant of a pacemaker brain in patients with involuntary movements such as tremors, or with blocked movement. The installation of these systems allows you to modulate the activity of the areas affected by Parkinson’s disease or other movement disorders.
What stage is the research at?
Humanitas is involved in several research projects, including a study of the causes of dementia, which occurs in the advanced stage of the disease in 30% of cases. They are studying the indicators that help us understand which patients are more likely to develop early dementia. There are several therapies available to treat the symptoms of Parkinson’s, but there is much work to do to figure out if and how we can prevent the onset of the disease. Studies are focusing on the autonomic nervous system and specifically on the nerves that go to the heart, because early alterations of these nerve bundles can be connected with the risk of developing dementia.
Parkinson’s disease
Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease caused by the progressive death of nerve cells in a specific area which through the neurotransmitter dopamine, control our body movements. Typical symptoms of the disease include: tremor, stiffness, slowness of movement and in advanced stages, dementia.
The causes of the disease are still unknown, although it can be reduced to environmental and genetic factors.
There are approximately 300,000 patients with Parkinson’s in Italy alone, many of which are men over 60. However, today’s opportunity to diagnose the disease early, from the first symptoms, is leading to a gradual lowering of this age statistic.
