Parkinson disease
Overview
Parkinson's disease is a progressive, nervous system degenerative disorder characterized by resting tremor, stiffness (rigidity), slow and decreased movement (bradykinesia), and gait and/or postural instability.
Treatment options
Various medications are available to target the basal ganglion and dopamine metabolism. Surgery or intracranial implant is also available for selected patients.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is effective in many neurological conditions, including PD. The mechanism is not well known as far, but it is reasonable to believe that acupuncture can regulate dopamine secretion, based on researches on acupuncture analgesia.
Treatment objects
The objects vary at different stages of PD.
• Early-stage: the aims are to maintain NORMAL function with medication, and to slow or pause the progression of PD.
• Advanced-stage: the aims are to partially reverse function impairment such as unsteady gait, and to improve the efficacy of medications
• Late-stage: the aims are to maintain the function for home care, and to minimize side effects of high dose medications,
Unfortunately, PD is not curable with current treatments.
Treatment protocol
The initial course is 10 treatments. The 10 sessions are delivered over 4-6 weeks for early-stage PD. Patients with advanced-stage PD will have 10 treatments over 3-4 weeks. Daily treatments for 2 weeks are required for late-stage PD.
Patients normally notice improvement after 1 week of treatments. Due to the degenerative nature
of the PD, patients may need long term maintenance treatment with greater interval, once per fortnight, when the condition is stable.
Safety
Acupuncture is a well-tolerated safe treatment. Patients experience pain less than intra-muscular injection and blood tests. However, patients may experience acupuncture-specific sensation, De Qi, which might feel like vague tingling and lasts seconds.
The risk of bleeding is low, regardless of anti-platelet or anti-coagulation therapies, such as aspirin, clopidogrel and warfarin. Please advise us if you are taking any blood thinners.
Fee
1st treatment of the week - $250
Subsequent treatments of the week - $175
Weekly or fortnightly maintenance treatment - $200
Medicare rebate - $107.25
*Patients are encouraged to contact Medicare for Extended Medicare Safety Net (EMSN). 80% rebate of the out-of-pocket fee may be claimed when the threshold is reached. The out-of-pocket cost may be as low as $13.
http://www.mbsonline.gov.au/internet/mbsonline/publishing.nsf/Content/Factsheet-EMSN1Jan2020
