Laser pointer aids Parkinson's patients

A patient's discovery that an everyday laser pointer helps him walk may lead to an effective remedy for a common and frustrating symptom of Parkinson's disease. The patient's physicians at Strong Memorial Hospital presented the results of a study involving just a few patients at a recent meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Toronto. While the small size of the study should make patients and doctors pause before assuming the treatment will help, the authors say neurologists would do well to have a laser pointer handy to let patients give it a try.

The simple device seems to help patients overcome freezing episodes, where patients' legs literally freeze in place as they're trying to walk. Doctors don't know exactly what causes the unpredictable freezing episodes of Parkinson's disease, which affects about 500,000 adults in the United States. For about 30 percent of Parkinson's patients, this is one of the most difficult symptoms of the disease. The episodes can last for seconds or even several minutes. Some patients experience only momentary hesitation occasionally, while for others the episodes occur dozens of times a day.

It was Parkinson's patient Stan Clark who discovered that when he used a laser pointer and looked at the spot it projected, it helped him start moving again after a freezing episode. Clark relayed his experience to his doctors, neurologists Timothy Counihan and Lin Zhang, who then tried the device with six patients in the doctors' office. Three patients improved an average of 20 percent, while one other patient's freezing actually worsened, probably because she was concentrating so much on using the device, said Counihan. When a doctor assisted by shining the beam for her, that patient also improved markedly. Two other patients had no freezing episodes while walking back and forth for 30 feet.

"This is a very practical, inexpensive device that patients can carry with them," said Counihan. "It seems to get them moving again." Counihan adds that a larger study is necessary to check the initial findings.