Neurological diseases, like Parkinson's, are often devastating. The symptoms, including tremors and twisting limbs, can be painful and embarrassing, but a new treatment device is giving patients hope and doctors access to information they've never had before.At 12 years old, John Caldwell received a difficult diagnosis."They called it an essential tremor which means you have a tremor but they don't know why you have it," Caldwell said.His hands would shake and over the years, he developed dystonia, a painful twisting in his neck. He was unable to turn his head. At one point, he was taking 25 pills a day to manage his symptoms.Last fall, his wife Diane heard about a new treatment option: a deep brain stimulation implant that would allow doctors to treat his symptoms and record his brain activity after the operation."It really can provide hope to people when they reach a stage where the medicine isn't working," said Dr. Mark Richardson, director of functional neurosurgery at Massachusetts General Hospital.He said deep brain stimulation has been a successful treatment option for neurological disease for 20 years but they didn't know the effect of that stimulation on a day-to-day basis."Now we have an additional tool we can use, which is we can see the person's own brain activity and how that's responding to stimulation," Richardson said.In July, Caldwell became the first patient in New England to undergo the minimally-invasive procedure. Richardson and his team used real-time MRI guidance to insert a wire the size of a spaghetti string into his brain. It delivers electrical stimulation to treat his symptoms and connects to a pacemaker-like device to track his brain activity."This is really a whole new window into brain function. This is data, information, we've never been able to see before," said Dr. Todd Herrington, director of the deep brain stimulation program at MGH.He said that new data will help them treat each specific patient in precisely the right way."For the first time, the device can actually record activity from the brain, which we think is going to be the brain activity underlying some of these symptoms, and we think that activity may help guide us in how we adjust the stimulator for each person," Herrington said.Herrington had told Caldwell it might take two to three months to find the right setting and bring relief but at this first follow up appointment, he was amazed."Like a wave of warm just came down my body, from my head and I was sitting there like 'What is this?'" Caldwell said."Dr. Herrington asked John to hold his hands out and I looked and one hand was tremoring and one hand was not and it was absolutely amazing to me that it worked. That it was possible and it happened and it was right before my very eyes," Diane Caldwell said.His dystonia also dramatically improved. He tracks any symptoms on this device to share at his follow-up appointments but says it's a miracle to have come so far. "What they gave me more than anything is hope. I never had hope that I could ever get out of this," Caldwell said.The hope is the device could one day read brain activity and provide stimulation in real time to treat symptoms. Richardson called it "The Holy Grail" of brain modulation.

Neurological diseases, like Parkinson's, are often devastating. The symptoms, including tremors and twisting limbs, can be painful and embarrassing, but a new treatment device is giving patients hope and doctors access to information they've never had before.

At 12 years old, John Caldwell received a difficult diagnosis.

"They called it an essential tremor which means you have a tremor but they don't know why you have it," Caldwell said.

His hands would shake and over the years, he developed dystonia, a painful twisting in his neck. He was unable to turn his head. At one point, he was taking 25 pills a day to manage his symptoms.

Last fall, his wife Diane heard about a new treatment option: a deep brain stimulation implant that would allow doctors to treat his symptoms and record his brain activity after the operation.

"It really can provide hope to people when they reach a stage where the medicine isn't working," said Dr. Mark Richardson, director of functional neurosurgery at Massachusetts General Hospital.

He said deep brain stimulation has been a successful treatment option for neurological disease for 20 years but they didn't know the effect of that stimulation on a day-to-day basis.

"Now we have an additional tool we can use, which is we can see the person's own brain activity and how that's responding to stimulation," Richardson said.

In July, Caldwell became the first patient in New England to undergo the minimally-invasive procedure. Richardson and his team used real-time MRI guidance to insert a wire the size of a spaghetti string into his brain. It delivers electrical stimulation to treat his symptoms and connects to a pacemaker-like device to track his brain activity.

"This is really a whole new window into brain function. This is data, information, we've never been able to see before," said Dr. Todd Herrington, director of the deep brain stimulation program at MGH.

He said that new data will help them treat each specific patient in precisely the right way.

"For the first time, the device can actually record activity from the brain, which we think is going to be the brain activity underlying some of these symptoms, and we think that activity may help guide us in how we adjust the stimulator for each person," Herrington said.

Herrington had told Caldwell it might take two to three months to find the right setting and bring relief but at this first follow up appointment, he was amazed.

"Like a wave of warm just came down my body, from my head and I was sitting there like 'What is this?'" Caldwell said.

"Dr. Herrington asked John to hold his hands out and I looked and one hand was tremoring and one hand was not and it was absolutely amazing to me that it worked. That it was possible and it happened and it was right before my very eyes," Diane Caldwell said.

His dystonia also dramatically improved. He tracks any symptoms on this device to share at his follow-up appointments but says it's a miracle to have come so far.

"What they gave me more than anything is hope. I never had hope that I could ever get out of this," Caldwell said.

The hope is the device could one day read brain activity and provide stimulation in real time to treat symptoms. Richardson called it "The Holy Grail" of brain modulation.

Originally posted here:
New treatment option brings hope to patients with neurological disease - WCVB Boston