Researchers from Arizona University have revealed a new understanding of one of the most common complications faced by patients with Parkinson's disease: uncontrolled movements that occur after years of treatment.
Parkinson's disease - a neurological disorder of the brain, which affects human movements - develops when the level of dopamine, the chemical in the brain responsible for the movement of the body begins to decrease.
To prevent dopamine loss, a drug called Levodopa is introduced, which is later converted to dopamine into a brain. However, prolonged treatment with levodopa causes involuntary and uncontrolled movements known as dyskinesia caused by levodopa.
A study published in a journal Brain, It has found new discoveries about the nature of dyskinesia caused by levodopa, and how ketamine, anesthetic, can help solve this complex condition.
Over the years, the brain of the patient with Parkinson's disease adapts to the treatment of levodopa, so levodopa causes dyskinesia in the long run. In a new study, the research group found that the motor cortex - the area of the brain responsible for the control of the movements - becomes actually "disconnected" during dyskinetic episodes.
Studies have shown that ketamine can help disrupt anomalous repetitive electrical circuits in the brain that occur during dyskinesia. It can potentially help motor cortex restore control over movement.
Ketamine acts in such patients in two stages. Initially, it violates these anomalous electrical circuits that occur during dyskinesia. Then, after a few hours or days, Ketamine triggers much slower processes that allow you to change the bond and activity of brain cells over time, known as neuroplasticity. It lasts much longer than the direct effect of ketamine. Neuroplasticity is something that allows neurons to form new connections and strengthen existing ones.
Using one dose of ketamine, the positive effects can be seen even in a few months. These findings are of additional importance in the light of phase 2 clinical trials that last at the University of Arizona, where a group of researchers from the Department of Neurology tests low doses of ketamine infusions as a treatment for dyskinesia in patients with Parkinson's disease.
The early results of this study seem promising, and some patients experience benefits that last weeks after one course of treatment. Doses of ketamine can be changed in such a way as to maintain therapeutic benefits with minimized side effects.