Neurons slow down for placebo effect.Inert substances used as sham medications, or placebos, temporarily benefit some people with Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease or Parkinsonism, degenerative brain disorder first described by the English surgeon James Parkinson in 1817. When there is no known cause, the disease usually appears after age 40 and is referred to as Parkinson's disease. by easing the activity of brain cells that contribute to their condition, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a new trial. A research team led by Fabrizio Benedetti of the University of Turin The University of Turin (Italian Università degli Studi di Torino, UNITO) is a university in the city of Turin in the Piedmont region of north-western Italy. It has 12 faculties and 55 departments. Medical School in Italy first gave 11 Parkinson's patients injections of a medication that briefly quelled muscle rigidity and related symptoms. The drug, apomorphine ap·o·mor·phine n. A poisonous, white, crystalline alkaloid derived from morphine and used medicinally to induce vomiting. apomorphine an alkaloid from morphine. , raises brain concentrations of dopamine dopamine (dōp`əmēn), one of the intermediate substances in the biosynthesis of epinephrine and norepinephrine. See catecholamine. dopamine One of the catecholamines, widely distributed in the central nervous system. , a brain-signal transmitter. After the drug's effect had worn off, the researchers temporarily inserted a hair-thin electrode into each volunteer's brain to measure electrical signals emitted by cells in a Parkinson's-implicated area called the subthalamic nucleus subthalamic nucleus n. A circumscript nucleus that is located in the ventral part of the subthalamus, receives a massive projection from the lateral segment of the globus pallidus, and projects to both pallidal segments and to the mesencephalic tegmentum. . As expected, all the patients exhibited excessive neural activity in this region. These same people then received a placebo injection of a salt solution that they believed was apomorphine. In six of the patients, Parkinson's symptoms temporarily improved and electrical activity in the subthalamic nucleus declined markedly and occurred at a more even pace than it had before the volunteers received the placebo. The five people who gained no relief from their symptoms after the placebo injection exhibited no neural change. The results, published in the June Nature Neuroscience, elaborate on preliminary evidence that placebos may aid individuals with Parkinson's disease (SN: 9/15/01, p. 175).--B.B. |
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