There is no cure for Parkinson’s disease, but medications and surgery can often provide dramatic relief from the symptom.

Surgery may be appropriate if Parkinson’s disease doesn’t respond to medications.

Your doctor may also recommend lifestyle changes, such as physical therapy, a healthy diet and exercise.

Exercise can help people with Parkinson’s improve their mobility and flexibility. It can also improve their emotional well-being. Exercise may improve the brain’s dopamine production or increase levels of beneficial compounds called neurotrophic factors in the brain. There are limits though to the effectiveness of these therapies, and scientists are working to find better ways to treat Parkinson’s disease.

Recent advances in areas such as genetics, drug therapy, and brain stimulation offer hope that some day it may be possible to cure Parkinson’s disease, delay its onset, or prevent it altogether.

Usually, people with Parkinson’s disease are given levodopa. Also, people usually take levodopa combined with a medication called carbidopa. Carbidopa delays the conversion of levodopa into dopamine until it reaches the brain. This prevents or reduces some of the side effects that often accompany levodopa therapy. Carbidopa also reduces the amount of levodopa needed.

Anticholinergics may help control tremor and rigidity for people with Parkinson’s disease. Other drugs, such as bromocriptine, pramipexole, and ropinirole, mimic the role of dopamine in the brain, causing the neurons to react as they would to dopamine. An antiviral drug, amantadine, also appears to reduce symptoms. In May 2006, the FDA approved rasagiline to be used along with levodopa for people with advanced Parkinson’s disease or as a single drug treatment for early Parkinson’s disease.

A therapy called deep brain stimulation (DBS) has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In DBS, electrodes are surgically implanted into part the brain and connected to a small electrical device called a pulse generator that can be externally programmed. DBS can reduce the need for levodopa and related drugs, which in turn decreases the involuntary movements called dyskinesias that are a common side effect of levodopa. It also helps to alleviate fluctuations of symptoms and to reduce tremors, slowness of movements, and gait problems. DBS requires careful programming of the stimulator device in order to work correctly. Older adults with Parkinson’s disease, who have only a partial response to levodopa, may not improve with DBS.

Organizations

American Parkinson Disease Association
135 Parkinson Avenue
Staten Island, NY 10305-1425
apda@apdaparkinson.org
www.apdaparkinson.org
Tel: 718-981-8001 800-223-2732 Calif: 800-908-2732
Fax: 718-981-4399

National Parkinson Foundation
1501 N.W. 9th Avenue
Bob Hope Road
Miami, FL 33136-1494
contact@parkinson.org
www.parkinson.org
Tel: 305-243-6666 800-327-4545
Fax: 305-243-5595

Parkinson Alliance
P.O. Box 308
Kingston, NJ 08528-0308
admin@parkinsonalliance.org
www.parkinsonalliance.org
Tel: 609-688-0870 800-579-8440
Fax: 609-688-0875

Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research
Grand Central Station
P.O. Box 4777
New York, NY 10163
www.michaeljfox.org
Tel: 212-509-0995

Parkinson’s Action Network (PAN)
1025 Vermont Ave., NW
Suite 1120
Washington, DC 20005
info@parkinsonsaction.org
www.parkinsonsaction.org
Tel: 800-850-4726 202-638-4101
Fax: 202-638-7257

Parkinson’s Disease Foundation (PDF)
1359 Broadway
Suite 1509
New York, NY 10018
info@pdf.org
www.pdf.org
Tel: 212-923-4700 800-457-6676
Fax: 212-923-4778

Parkinson’s Institute
1170 Morse Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1605
www.thepi.org
Tel: 408-734-2800 800-786-2958
Fax: 408-734-8522

Parkinson’s Resource Organization
74-090 El Paseo
Suite 102
Palm Desert, CA 92260-4135
info@parkinsonsresource.org
www.parkinsonsresource.org
Tel: 760-773-5628 310-476-7030 877-775-4111
Fax: 760-773-9803

WE MOVE (Worldwide Education & Awareness for Movement Disorders)
204 West 84th Street
New York, NY 10024
wemove@wemove.org
www.wemove.org
Tel: 212-875-8312 866-546-3136
Fax: 212-875-8389

Bachmann-Strauss Dystonia & Parkinson Foundation
Mt. Sinai Medical Center One Gustave L. Levy Place
P.O. Box 1490
New York, NY 10029
Bachmann.Strauss@mssm.edu
www.dystonia-parkinsons.org
Tel: 212-241-5614
Fax: 212-987-0662

Source – www.ninds.nih.gov