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Sound waves for movement disorders

Posted on 16 February 2017

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Could research into Parkinson’s shed some light on Tourettes Syndrome?

A long way off from treatment but interesting result for other conditions with sound waves
Could research into Parkinson’s also shed some light on Tourettes Syndrome (TS)? Recent research using ultrasound brain surgery has been used to treat a patient’s uncontrollable tremors with success. Early research trials for tremor have been carried out but are not available on the NHS for any movement disorder. The researchers will investigate the use of this type of treatment in Parkinson's disease and Multiple Sclerosis and other motion disorders and perhaps one day in the future this might include Tourettes Syndrome. Although less invasive than Deep Brain Stimulation any potential treatment would still have risks and because TS is such a complicated condition there would still be issues of where in the brain to direct this treatment. There is also complete uncertainty as to whether TS patients would benefit from this treatment so trials would be needed even if this became an approved treatment for tremor.
An interesting development which may sometime in the future could be used in trials of research for TS.


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