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news - Almighty novel magnetic brain training technique for Alzheimers patients on HWN ALZHEIMERS back to all News
Almighty novel magnetic brain training technique for Alzheimers patients on HWN ALZHEIMERS
Seen as a major breakthrough for treating those who already have the debilitating brain condition - which as yet has no cure - the NeuroAD treatment is now being rolled out at some private practices across the country.
Experts say the approach could leave sufferers “’more alive”, able to tackle crosswords again, paint and generally interact better with their families.
A complete alternative to drug therapy - which often has intolerable side-effects for many patients - it is hoped the new technique will also help hold off further brain decline.
Formulated by scientists in Israel and the US, it works by boosting the brain’s ability for recall and reasoning using electromagnetic stimulation.
And in trials, three quarters of the patients who went through the six-week procedure - which costs £6,000 - saw their symptoms either stabilise or improve.
Some continued to get better for two years.
Marwan Sabbagh, director of the Alzheimer’s and memory disorders programme at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona, explained: “The patient’s response (to the treatment) is individual.
Some patients have better communication and interaction with their families
It is hoped the technique - which has now been introduced at private practices in London, Chester, Manchester, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire - could offer hope to the hundreds of thousands of people in the UK suffering from Alzheimer’s.
Currently, there is no known cure for Alzheimer’s which causes nerve cell death and tissue loss throughout the brain leading to dementia.
During the course of the disease, the brain shrinks dramatically, affecting nearly all its functions.
In the UK, around 850,000 people suffer from dementia, costing some £26billion a year. The figures are also rising rapidly as the population ages.
Last night, UK research bodies gave a cautious welcome to the new technique.
Dr Rosa Sancho, Head of Research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: With the current limited treatment options for people with dementia, new approaches such as magnetic brain stimulation are important avenues for researchers to explore.
While some small studies have suggested that magnetic brain stimulation may be able to improve the memory and thinking skills of people with Alzheimer’s disease, larger studies on thousands of people are needed before we know whether it can offer any real benefit.
Magnetic brain stimulation is being tested as a way to improve the activity of nerve cells in the brain, however this does not tackle the underlying changes that cause nerve cells to die in Alzheimer’s disease.
Ultimately, a treatment that can slow or halt the damage occurring in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s could offer the best chance of improving the lives of those living with the disease, and this will only be possible with sustained investment in research.
Dr Doug Brown, Director of Research and Development at Alzheimer’s Society said: There is a great deal of interest in whether brain training can help people with Alzheimer’s disease retain their memory and thinking skills.
The idea that using magnetic fields to stimulate the brain and increase the benefits of training is intriguing, but it’s still early days for this approach.
But he added: The NeuroAD system of combining their brain training with magnetic stimulation is classed as a medical device rather than a drug, so the type of evidence needed to get a license is different.
There isn’t yet enough evidence to be certain that this approach will improve thinking skills for people with Alzheimer’s disease and we encourage the company to produce further evidence in due course. The treatment is likely to be expensive, so people need to carefully consider the costs and potential benefits.
The new technique sees electromagnetic stimulation applied to the brains of patients.
It is believed to work by helping sufferers forge new pathways around the areas of brain damage.
Firstly, an MRI scan is taken to locate the six areas of the brain which play important roles in memory, language and logic.
Then, for an hour each day, the patient is presented with tests deigned to challenge these regions - such as lists of words or coloured shapes to remember.
But while the tests are undertaken, the patient also received a dose transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), in which a device outside the skull projects a magnetic field that is believed to encourage brain cells to form new connections.
In extensive clinical trials some patients have been able to resume pastimes such as playing the piano or painting, with the effects lasting for several months at the very least.
In the UK, one trial in Berkshire has already proved particularly successful.
Martine Stoffels, a consultant old-age psychiatrist, has used the technique to treat eight Alzheimer’s patients at the Phoenix Mental Health Services practice in High Wycombe.
She said: The people who’ve been going through our treatment protocol have all improved, which is incredibly exciting and beyond what we expected.
But while seeing it as ‘promising’, some scientists in the field remain sceptical as to how effective such a treatment can be.
Nick Davis, an expert on brain stimulation devices at Manchester Metropolitan University, said: “Sadly, this is not a cure for dementia, which is likely to come from pharmacological treatments, but the hope is that TMS-based treatments will hold off the decline of cognition for a few months.
Source: ExpressUk, HWN Africa.
: 2017-02-11 18:13:14 | : 1564
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