Author Archives: Steve Bryson PhD

In an anonymous online survey, 11.3% of Norwegian adults with Parkinson’s disease revealed current or previous use of cannabis or a related product, with a high percentage reporting symptom relief. According to researchers, patients who use the medicinal drug from the marijuana plant — and those interested in trying…

Collecting finger tapping, voice, and walking data on a smartphone to be digitally processed by deep machine learning tools can accurately distinguish between people with and without Parkinson’s disease, a study of more than 7,000 people reported. This approach, known integrative digital biomarkers, may help to diagnose the disease…

The presence of levodopa-metabolizing bacteria in the intestines of adults using Duodopa (Duopa in the U.S.) to treat their Parkinson’s disease did not affect their blood levels of levodopa, a small study in Japan suggested. Rather, people on this levodopa-carbidopa formulation, administered directly into the small intestine, “can maintain a constant…

Although safe and fairly well tolerated, treatment with the over-the-counter supplement mannitol did not lessen symptoms in adults with Parkinson’s disease over 36 weeks, a small Phase 2a clinical trial concluded. Its researchers noted, however, that the study had too few patients to show a statistically significant impact on…

Sio Gene Therapies (Sio), formerly known as Axovant, intends to stop  development of AXO-Lenti-PD, an investigational gene therapy for Parkinson’s disease. Sio will return the global rights to develop and market the therapy to Oxford Biomedica, which licensed the treatment to Sio in 2018. The…

The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) encouraged the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Veterans’ Affairs to expand healthcare access for veterans exposed to hazardous chemicals, and to better support research into service-connected Parkinson’s disease. Recently, the committee hosted a roundtable discussion about healthcare costs for veterans exposed…

Medications used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disorder, do not affect a person’s risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, a Finnish study, funded by the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, reported. Rheumatoid arthritis has been associated with a lower Parkinson’s risk, but exposure to arthritis therapies did…

Psychosis, including hallucinations and delusions, is frequent in people with late-stage Parkinson’s disease a study reported, after psychotic symptoms were confirmed in more than half of the 92 patients examined. Some degree of cognitive impairment was found in almost all evaluated patients, with study participants diagnosed a mean of 15.9…

Speech impairments appear to associate with freezing of gait symptoms — a sudden inability to walk — in people with Parkinson’s disease, a study reported. Speech assessments, especially during the “on-state” of medication use — immediately after taking dopamine-based medicines — may identify Parkinson’s patients vulnerable to freezing of…

Low levels of the hormone serotonin in the bloodstream of people with Parkinson’s disease were associated with a buildup of iron in the substantia nigra — the brain region most damaged in this disorder, a study reveals for possibly the first time. Researchers found this serotonin-iron relationship was primarily…