History Of Treatments Of Parkinson's Disease

The positive albeit modest effects on tremor of anticholinergic alkaloids obtained from the plant of the belladona were described during 19th century by Charcot, Erb and others. Modern surgery for tremor, consisting of the lesioning of some of the basal ganglia structures was first tried in 1939 and was improved over the following 20 years. Before this date surgery consisted in lesioning the corticospinal pathway with paralysis instead of tremor as result. Anticholinergics and surgery were the only treaments until the arrival of levodopa, which reduced their use dramatically. Levodopa was first synthesized in 1911 by Casimir Funk, but it received little attention until the mid 20th century. It entered clinical practice in 1967, and the first large study reporting improvements in people with Parkinson's disease resulting from treatment with levodopa was published in 1968. Levodopa brought about a revolution in the management of PD. By the late 1980s deep brain stimulation emerged as a possible treatment and it was approved for clinical use by the FDA in 1997.