Together, Butler Hospital and Rhode Island Hospital are participating in The ADvance Study, a clinical trial investigating the use of deep brain stimulation (DBS) as a treatment for patients with Alzheimer's disease. The collaborative study between the two hospitals is part of a multisite clinical trial investigating the safety and efficacy of DBS in slowing the loss of memory and cognition in patients with Alzheimer's disease, a disease which currently afflicts more than 5 million people in the US and for which there is no cure.
A device currently used to treat other brain-related conditions, DBS is often described as a 'pacemaker for the brain,' as it uses an implanted device to electronically stimulate the brain. In the ADvance Study, a pacemaker-like device is implanted beneath the skin in the patient's chest to deliver electrical pulses directly to the fornix- a part of the brain that plays a central role in memory. DBS is currently FDA approved to treat Parkinson's disease, Tourette's syndrome and resistant Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
"Alzheimer's researchers from around the world, including those at Butler and Rhode Island Hospital, are committed to developing safe and effective treatments for Alzheimer's disease," said Stephen Salloway, MD, principal investigator for the study and director of the Memory and Aging Program at Butler Hospital. "DBS has helped transform the treatment of Parkinson's disease and we hope that stimulation of memory circuits can have a similar benefit in treating Alzheimer's disease." Salloway notes that the approach in this study differs from medications and vaccines that are being investigated for Alzheimer's disease. DBS uses a device that has already been safety-checked and FDA approved for treating other conditions and has been shown to be safe in early studies with Alzheimer's patients.
This clinical trial stems from a preliminary DBS study in six patients with Alzheimer's disease in Canada. That study found that patients with mild forms of the disease showed sustained increases in glucose metabolism, an indicator of neuronal activity, over a 13-month period. Most patients with Alzheimer's disease show decreases in glucose metabolism over the same time period.
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