Brain’s pacemaker offers new hope for neurological disorders

Yes, you heard it right. Just like a pacemaker for the heart, which ensures the heart ticks, there is a pacemaker for the brain that sends electrical impulses to specific areas of the brain, which are responsible for controlling body movements

Hyderabad: There is a pacemaker for the brain, which provides a new lease of life for patients with neurological disorders!

Yes, you heard it right. Just like a pacemaker for the heart, which ensures the heart ticks, there is a pacemaker for the brain that sends electrical impulses to specific areas of the brain, which are responsible for controlling body movements.

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Known as Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), this ‘pacemaker for the brain’ ensures that people who can’t control their limb movements, such as patients with Parkinson’s Disease, are able to live more normally without the tremors and regain motor control.

“I have so far treated nearly 800 Parkinson’s Disease patients, drawn from across the country, with DBS. If we carefully choose the patients and properly conduct the surgery, then the success will be up to 80 percent. Such patients immediately get back control of their limbs,” says senior neurologist and Parkinson’s Disease (DBS) specialist, Dr Rupam Borgohain, who has been treating movement disorders for the past two-decades.

In the last few years, DBS treatment has been approved to treat patients with severe treatment –resistant Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders (OCDs), neurological disorders like epilepsy, Alzheimer’s Disease, Dystonia and Multiple Sclerosis and other ailments that are related to tremors.

Essentially, DBS involves implanting a small device (pulse generator) in the brain, which sends electrical impulses to areas in the brain that control movements. These impulses help regulate the abnormal brain activity causes by Parkinson’s disease, significantly improving motor function, Dr Rupam explains.

“There is, however, a need for families, who have such patients with them to realize that it’s better for the patient with Parkinson’s to undergo this treatment early. Most of the patients for DBS come to us at an advanced stage. I urge families to reach out to us at the earliest,” Dr Rupam, who is Director, Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Research Centre (PDMDRC), Yashoda Hospitals, Hi-tech City, says.

‘5-2-1’ criteria for early DBS treatment

Patients who take Levodopa, a common drug prescribed for Parkinson’s, five or more times a day, experience two or more periods when disease symptoms return in a day and at least one hour of uncontrolled movements, then they should get DBS treatment.

“Identifying the right kind of patient and successfully installing the implant at the right place are crucial factors for good results,” Dr Rupam points out.