July 27, 2015 – Parkinson’s Help

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Anchor lead: A new device may help people with Parkinson’s, Elizabeth Tracey reports

A simple headset developed by Yousef Salimpour and colleagues at Johns Hopkins may help people with Parkinson’s disease cope with symptoms more easily. The headset stimulates certain parts of the brain.

Salimpour: It’s completely noninvasive and it’s not expensive. And even if it can do a small improvement in the symptoms it’s very valuable.  :08

Salimpour says people will simply wear the headset for a certain amount of time on a prescribed schedule, and although no one knows exactly how it works it may reduce both tremor and mood complications of Parkinson’s. It’s not yet available, but Salimpour hopes the device won’t take long to get to market.

Salimpour: By nature this device is very simple and the device is not very complicated. So when you put together these two characteristics and also since it’s noninvasive and up to now, without any side effects, it might facilitate its pathway through the market.   :16

At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.