In a few of my classes recently, I have been learning about Alzheimer’s disease, and it’s fascinating. A few years ago, my grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and I have been conducting research in this area ever since. I really want to understand the ways that neuroscientists are currently implementing treatments for this disease. Recently, I took it upon myself to conduct a research task to find out where we are with our treatment plans for those with Alzheimer’s, and I found that there were actually way more treatments than I had originally thought.

If you have no idea what Alzheimer’s is, or need a refresher, take a peek here.

First things first, there more proposed treatments for Alzheimer’s than I can count. I could create a huge list, along with their pros and cons, but that would just be tedious and boring for you to read, so i’m just going to tell you about the most exciting treatment: Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS).

Deep Brain Stimulation is a common practice in patients with both Parkinson’s and Depression. DBS involves surgically inserting an electrode to certain areas of the brain, and applying an electric current to disrupt the normal firings of neurons in these specific areas. In Alzheimer’s, the electrodes are placed in the hippocampal fornix, an output to the brain’s memory processor. It is important to note that DBS is only currently being used in clinical trials in Alzheimer’s patients, and it hasn’t yet been implemented into common treatment practices.

In a clinical trial conducted by Laxton, Lozano and colleagues at the University of Toronto, DBS was performed on six patients with Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers implanted the electrodes bilaterally (to both brain hemispheres), and conducted a series of neuroimaging techniques to determine functional and structural changes resulting from DBS.

After 12 months of this treatment, scans showed that the patients had significant increases of glucose metabolism in both the parietal and temporal cortices of the brain. Decreased glucose metabolism indicates lower activity, and thus greater impairment. Therefore, this increase in glucose metabolism indicates that the area that wasn’t functioning as well improved. The researchers  also found this through cognitive testing. These patients seemed to be at a better cognitive state than a person who wouldn’t have had this treatment would have been at. However, the researchers here didn’t have a control group, so this is an area of research that needs to be further investigated.

Currently, there are numerous clinical trials being conducted comparing the use of DBS with control patients who receive electrode stimulation on the surface of the brain, acting as the placebo group. Hopefully, with a few more years of research, the exact benefit of DBS can be determined, and if promising, can be implemented into normal Alzheimer’s treatment.

Works Cited:

Kaplan, Arline. “Deep brain stimulation: new promise in Alzheimer disease and depression?” Psychiatric Times Dec. 2012: 1. Health Reference Center Academic. Web. 6 Nov. 2014.