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Each year, about 50,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease,joining the estimated 1 million people already living in the United Stateswith this serious and disabling brain disorder. Parkinson’s occurs whennerve cells become damaged or destroyed in the substantia nigra, an areaof the brain that is important for normal voluntary movement and coordi-nation.

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Although surgical treatments fell out of favor after the discovery of Ldopa, they have made a comeback in recent years, thanks in large part to the development of animal models of Parkinson’s. These models, developed with the aid of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, have enabled scientists to pinpoint which structures deep within the brain are contributing to symptoms of Parkinson’s—and thus are targets for therapeutic intervention.

In the mid-1990s, researchers reported that deep brain stimulation of the part of the brain called the thalamus suppressed tremors in patients. The technique uses a surgically implanted electrode connected to a pulse generator implanted under the skin that can be adjusted to control the disabling shaking and trembling caused by the disease. And more recently, scientists have identified other targets for stimulation that can alleviate the other symptoms of slowness of movement and stiffness.

New medications and surgical techniques have greatly improved the lives of people with Parkinson’s, but they are not a cure. Backed with NIH grants, researchers are actively searching for treatments that will slow, prevent, or reverse the disease, rather than just lessen its symptoms.

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