Treatments for Parkinson's Disease

Introduction

Although there is no real cure for the degenerative effects of Parkinson's Disease, there are definitely many effective treatments for the symptoms, which are mainly dyskinesia but also the negative side-effects of the drugs Parkinson's patients have to take in order to keep the dyskinesia under control. The side effects of the most efficient drugs against Parkinson's are unfortunately extremely difficult to live with: hallucinations, psychosis, dementia, and loss of function, to name a few. That is why although there are many effective treatments out there, there are still many being researched as improvements in treatment of the disease.

The treatments for Parkinson's Disease are many and varied. There are quite a few that have been the principle drugs of choice for many years, such as L-dopa (approximately 80% of all Parkinson's patients take it), but these treatments have many known side effects and are losing popularity in the face of new, apparently more effective treatments and surgeries (Schapina 1999). Basically, there are two major types of treatment for Parkinson's disease after diagnosis: drug therapy, and surgical treatments. These treatments below will be expanded upon in detail:

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Menu of Treatments

Drug Therapy