Scientists Say Brain Stimulations Hold Potential in Treating Anxiety in Parkinson’s Sufferers

Researchers studying brain waves have suggested that a new discovery they have made could hold the key to treating anxiety in people diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. For a long time, DBS (deep brain stimulation) has been leveraged in the management of the physical symptoms linked to Parkinson’s, such as tremor, slowness and body stiffness. This new research suggests that DBS can take advantage of a specific brain wave and help treat anxiety in those with Parkinson’s disease.

Doctor Lucia Ricciardi, who co-led the study and works at University of London, explained that anxiety is a serious unmet medical need among individuals living with Parkinson’s disease. Their findings, she says, provide an opportunity to address this clinical need of Parkinson’s patients. Their work provides an avenue to consider novel and improved neuromodulation approaches customized for each patient so that anxiety and other symptoms can be managed or treated.

The study was conducted by teams at UC San Francisco and University of London. They recruited 33 individuals scheduled for DBS surgery aimed at addressing the physical symptoms of the patients.

Surgeons took tiny electrodes and implanted them inside the brains of the study participants. The brain waves of the subjects were then tracked using a variety of devices. Study subjects were in America and the UK. This analysis revealed that brain waves called theta power had a strong correlation with anxiety among persons with Parkinson’s. This discovery was made after the basal ganglia in the brain exhibited heightened wave activity among patients with anxiety. They found that an increase in theta power brain waves correlated with higher anxiety levels.

It should be noted that the observation about theta power waves manifested in patients using different tracking devices and in different locations where study participants were. This helps to strongly suggest that there is a major link between levels of theta power waves and anxiety.

Ricciardi revealed that their findings offer a way to take a closer look at the brain and learn more about the processes through which anxiety develops in individuals with Parkinson’s disease. The team hopes to develop a deep brain stimulation system which can automatically tweak its parameters so that just the right amount of stimulation is triggered inside the brain of a patient in order to manage the degree of anxiety they are experiencing in real time. In this way, the mood of the patient can improve due to a reduction in their anxiety level.

Doctor Simon Little, a UCSF-based co-lead of this research, says he hopes their findings not only result in solutions for anxiety in persons with Parkinson’s but also find application in other individuals who don’t have Parkinson’s but suffer from anxiety.

This research brings another angle that could enrich the future drug development efforts of companies like Annovis Bio Inc. (NYSE: ANVS) that are focused on finding effective treatments for various neurodegenerative ailments, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Annovis Bio Inc. (NYSE: ANVS) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/ANVS

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