Alfonso Fasano

In June 2021, Doctor and Patient decided that time had come to surgically implant two six-inch-long metal alloy spikes all the way through Ben’s brain. It was felt that the medications Ben was taking to control his Parkinson’s disease had become unmanageable. Back then, Ben was taking about 20 different pills a day. Each pill, if it absorbed properly, would activate the dopamine pathways in his brain and induce uncontrollable writhing movements that would last for about an hour. He would then get about 20 minutes where he’d feel somewhat normal before the slowness and tremor kicked in again. So, he’d take another pill and the cycle would repeat. After months of adjusting his medication and finding just the right settings on his deep brain stimulator, it was decided, for the first time ever in a clinical trial in North America, to flip on the adaptive settings. This is the story of how that decision was made and what happened next.

This concise but comprehensive book will help interested readers in the health care professions to navigate their way through the jungle of movement disorders, including the potentially complex differential diagnosis and management. The different disorders are discussed in individual sections that explain how to examine the patient and recognize the disorder from its basic phenomenology, how to confirm a diagnosis, how to distinguish a particular disorder from related conditions, and how to treat each disorder effectively. The book makes liberal use of diagrams, algorithms, tables, summary boxes, and illustrations to facilitate solution of clinical problems at the bedside and to solidify previously learned clinical and therapeutic concepts. It will be of interest to a broad audience of health professionals, scientists, and medical students.

This concise but comprehensive book will help interested readers in the health care professions to navigate their way through the jungle of movement disorders, including the potentially complex differential diagnosis and management. The different disorders are discussed in individual sections that explain how to examine the patient and recognize the disorder from its basic phenomenology, how to confirm a diagnosis, how to distinguish a particular disorder from related conditions, and how to treat each disorder effectively. The book makes liberal use of diagrams, algorithms, tables, summary boxes, and illustrations to facilitate solution of clinical problems at the bedside and to solidify previously learned clinical and therapeutic concepts. It will be of interest to a broad audience of health professionals, scientists, and medical students.