Parkinson's Disease: Can TMS Help?

A review of the evidence, and hope for the future, from excellent design.

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative condition that leads to problems with both movement and thinking. This newsletter is daily enough and health-themed, and I woke up thinking about movement disorders. Thus, this article!

It's a disable condition in which not enough dopamine is made by the cells normally responsible for that. This dopamine-producing center of the brain, called the substantia nigra is unable to keep up with the brain’s need for dopamine. Dopamine is not the only chemical that makes us “feel good.”

As I have written in Inessential Pharmacology (Amazon link), dopamine is an essential regulator in several neural circuits. These circuits impact motor functioning, pleasure, reward-seeking, attention, and prolactin release, among other brain functions.

One of the themes of this newsletter, over and over again, is that the brain’s function is more about circuits than chemicals. Today, I'm discussing Parkinson's disease and the role of non-invasive neuromodulati…