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Patients with Parkinson's disease who implanted electrodes in the brain improved substantially more than those who only took drugs, according to the largest experiment to date of deep brain stimulation.

The study, which observed the patients for six months, offers more encouraging news for those suffering from Parkinson's. The new technique reduced the tremors, stiffness and shaking of the members and allowed the subjects to move more freely for almost five hours more per day.


But the research also revealed a greater risk than anticipated. 40% of patients receiving these "brain pacemakers" suffered serious side effects, including a surprising number of falls with injuries.

"We had a patient who was so good that rose to repair your roof, fell and broke both legs," said lead author Fran Weaver, Hines Veterans Hospital, outside Chicago. "Patients are feeling better so that they forget they have Parkinson's."


The disease has no cure. Patients suffering from increasingly intense tremors and periodically stiff members as your brain stops producing dopamine, a chemical needed for the movement. May have difficulty walking, speaking and writing, and often fight depression.

The usual treatments include medications to stimulate dopamine production. But over time, the drugs can cause trembling movements that are as disturbing as those fighting the disease.


With the system of deep brain stimulation, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2002 for advanced Parkinson's and that has been practiced in thousands of patients, a surgeon implanted electrodes in the brain, which is then connected to a a pacemaker-like device that can be adjusted, turn on and off. This mechanism, implanted under the collarbone or in the abdomen, sends small electrical impulses to the brain nerve cells to turn hyperactive.

The new findings are published in Wednesday's edition of the journal of the American Medical Association. The researchers studied 255 patients with advanced Parkinson seven veterans hospitals and six university. The patients were randomly assigned the surgery along with standard medication, or medication alone.