Can I reduce my medication after DBS in PD patients and how can I do so?

Recently, I have seen some patients who have had DBS have irregularities in their postoperative medication reduction, so much so that it affects their lives. Some patients even doubt the effectiveness of DBS surgery, the quality of the machine, etc. There are also some patients whose symptoms are not well controlled, and after consulting the doctor, the doctor gave a reasonable drug with the program, and the patient’s symptoms improved well, but the patient started to reduce the medication due to financial reasons, psychological reasons, and inappropriate suggestions from others, and the patient felt that his medication was on the high side, so that in the process of reducing the medication, life was seriously affected and the quality of life was very poor. In the end, how to reduce the medication and whether it can be reduced becomes a concern for most patients. Parkinson’s is a degenerative disease, that is, the disease is developing, because the brain can not produce a neurotransmitter called dopamine by itself, so that the purpose of dopamine supplementation by oral levodopa drugs, by the breakdown of levodopa drugs into dopamine. Exactly how much dopamine supplementation is appropriate varies widely due to the patient’s symptoms, age, and psychological needs, so the amount of supplementation needed varies widely. Therefore, Parkinson’s is somehow similar to diabetes, a chronic disease, Parkinson’s is supplemented with dopamine to improve the quality of life of patients, diabetes is controlled diet and insulin supplementation to achieve blood sugar stability, both are degenerative lesions, both are developing, at present both can not be cured, both can only control symptoms to improve the quality of life. In the guidelines for early treatment of Parkinson’s, although levodopa analogs are the gold standard, it is not recommended that patients under 65 years of age use levodopa analogs directly in the early stages for fear of premature motor fluctuations (end-of-agent, isokinetic, and switching phenomena), and first take the monoamine oxidase inhibitors silegiline, resagiline, or dopamine receptor agonists (Tysudar, pramipexole), delaying the use of levodopa analogs, leaving room for later treatment. However, later studies found that motor fluctuations on levodopa-based drugs were caused by unstable drug breakdown concentrations, and the advent of the new levodopa-based drug Starivol changed the view that levodopa-based drugs could not be used in the early stages of Parkinson’s. Many Parkinson’s patients, due to poor symptom improvement, have gone to great lengths to find a doctor. Most patients who get new drugs want to reduce their original dosage after using the new drug. Parkinson’s treatment amount with the symptoms, if the patient due to the development of the disease end-dose effect or end-dose type of variation, need to supplement more dopamine, can be added to the original medication with Silegiline, dopamine receptor agonists, with entacapone with levodopa-like drugs, but also the original methadopa, restorative, Silemia plus times, increase the amount, but also the original use of methadopa, restorative, Silemia can be replaced with Starivol in appropriate amount. In this case, the medication cannot be reduced in general, but if the amount of other medication used with the supplement is large, such as after the fit with the anomalies, hallucinations, etc. can be appropriately reduced, all the fits should be titrated slowly from small doses, not too fast. If the patient has dose-peak-type dyskinesia, you can reduce the dosage of levodopa drugs appropriately by matching the dopamine receptor agonist pramipexole or using entacapone with levodopa drugs, or you can try to match with levodopa drugs in small amounts several times. For all patients, drug reduction is not the goal, to improve the quality of life is the goal, Parkinson’s is a complementary therapy, the amount of treatment with the symptoms, want to reduce the drug, you need to supplement other drugs to match. Just like a child growing up with the same amount of rice, if you want to eat less buns, you need to eat more vegetables and drink more rice, also want to eat less vegetables, eat more buns can also be, the specific amount of symptoms, that is to say, reduce the amount of medication to increase the amount of medication to improve the patient’s symptoms n degree as the standard. The same goes for DBS and medication, the amount follows the symptoms. For a patient who has had DBS, it is only the medication that works together, but with DBS it becomes the medication that works together with DBS. Experience has shown that DBS can be reduced to half or one-third of the preoperative amount of medication. The amount of drug reduction is related to the parameters of the DBS. The lower the parameters of the DBS, the less room for drug reduction, and the larger the parameters of the DBS, the greater the amount of drug reduction to meet. The parameters of the patient’s symptoms without medication may also be found, that is, whether it is worth it, the core of which is at the expense of DBS battery life. So it is necessary to increase the parameters of the DBS if you want to reduce the drug, but of course this is all under the premise of satisfying the degree of improvement of the patient’s symptoms, just reducing the drug without improving the parameters of the DBS, may not be worth the loss, and will mess up the quality of life of the patient. Constantly adjusting up the parameters to reduce the amount of medication can affect the life of the battery, increase the speed of changing the battery (stimulator) and increase the economic pressure. Therefore, the cooperation between DBS and medication is not aimed at reducing medication, but at improving the quality of life, at reducing the patient’s pain and economic pressure, and not at blindly reducing the amount of medication. Theoretically, the biggest advantage of DBS can be adjusted by the parameters to make the patient more coordinated, and on the basis of coordination and then appropriate with the medication, there will be better results. Overall, medication reduction is not the goal, improving the quality of life and reducing the patient’s economic pressure is the goal. As long as small doses are titrated slowly, a good effect will be achieved. Remember, the core of a new fit is the amount follows the symptoms, it does not matter if you can reduce the medication, what matters is the improvement of the patient’s quality of life, do not compromise the quality of life for the sake of reducing the medication, which defeats the purpose of adjusting the medication and doing DBS. All treatment must revolve around improving the patient’s quality of life and delaying the progression of the patient’s disease.