Do Parkinson’s disease patients still need medication after surgery?

  Parkinson’s disease is a common neurodegenerative disease of the middle-aged and elderly, and in recent years, the number of people suffering from the disease is increasing. Influenced by genetic and environmental factors, the disease also has a tendency to become younger, placing a heavy burden on both families and society. In the early stages of Parkinson’s disease treatment, drugs can improve symptoms well and are the preferred treatment for early Parkinson’s patients. However, after 3-5 years of treatment, the disease can become difficult to control after the “honeymoon” period.  As Parkinson’s disease progresses, drug therapy alone can no longer control the symptoms and serious drug complications occur, while deep brain electrical stimulation surgery is its second honeymoon period, after the operation can resume normal life, basically close to normal people.  After the pacemaker surgery, patients with Parkinson’s disease can improve their motor symptoms, so many patients stop taking their medication, thinking that they can stop taking medication.  The implantation of a “pacemaker” does not mean that you can stop taking medication. Usually, after the pacemaker is placed, the patient’s medication will be reduced by 50%, and the surgery can improve the movement disorder.  The general medication reduction is divided into the following two cases: i. The medication reduction is after 3 months. Theoretically the patient’s medication can be reduced to 50-60% after brain pacemaker surgery. However, this is not possible for all patients with Parkinson’s disease. For patients with significant improvement in motor symptoms after surgery and no respiratory distress. It is perfectly possible to reduce the medication in this way, and some patients can even go without medication. Because after the medication reduction, his symptoms can be controlled by adjusting the parameters. However, if patients with symptoms such as dyspnea appear, a hasty medication reduction will aggravate the non-motor symptoms and cause an overall state change, which will further affect the effect of the brain pacemaker as well. Therefore, it is necessary to take the medication at the original dose for 3 months before adjusting it after the start-up.  Second, medication reduction is started right after the start-up. This situation is for patients with anisocoria. Before starting the machine patients do not take the drug first debug the symptoms and test the effect. After that the patient is satisfied and then take on the drug, after the drug is taken, if the patient has the phenomenon of heterodyne there is a need to reduce the dose, some patients need to stop using Medopa, or change to other drugs.