For someone living with Parkinson’s disease, the hardest symptoms are not always the ones other people can see.
Depression, anxiety, and a deep loss of motivation can make everyday activities feel increasingly difficult.
Korean researchers have now found that a non-surgical brain stimulation treatment may improve these less visible symptoms while also helping patients become more active during the day.
The study tested a technique called transcranial direct current stimulation, or tDCS. During treatment, electrodes placed on the head deliver a low electrical current to selected areas of the brain.
The current is weak, and the method does not involve an operation or anesthesia.
Unlike medicines that travel throughout the body, tDCS is designed to influence activity in particular brain areas.
Scientists are investigating whether this gentle stimulation can help brain networks work differently in people with neurological or mental health conditions. Its possible role in Parkinson’s disease is of particular interest because Parkinson’s affects far more than physical movement.
Parkinson’s is a progressive brain disease that becomes more common with age. Many patients develop familiar movement symptoms, including tremor, muscle stiffness, poor balance, and slower movements. These problems are linked in part to the loss of brain cells that make dopamine, a chemical important for controlling movement and several other functions.
Yet Parkinson’s also has many nonmovement symptoms. People may experience sleep problems, anxiety, depression, changes in thinking, fatigue, or apathy. These symptoms can have a major effect on independence and quality of life even when movement symptoms are being treated with medication.
Apathy deserves particular attention because it can easily be mistaken for laziness or depression. People with apathy may care less about starting activities, pursuing goals, or taking part in things they once enjoyed. Someone can experience apathy without feeling the sadness or hopelessness usually associated with depression.
Professor Ho Kyung Yoon from psychiatry and Professor Do Young Kwon from neurology at Korea University Ansan Hospital led the new research. Their team studied 20 Parkinson’s patients who had depressive symptoms. Each participant received 10 brain stimulation sessions over several weeks, with three treatments given per week.
The stimulation targeted brain regions involved in regulating emotion. At the same time, the participants wore smart bands that collected information about their lives outside the hospital. The devices tracked measures such as daily steps and sleep, giving researchers an objective record of behavior rather than relying only on what patients remembered or reported.
After the treatment, depression scores dropped by roughly 54%. Anxiety improved by about 38%, while apathy decreased by around 25%. The researchers also reported an improvement of about 35% in movement symptoms such as stiffness and slow movement.
But the smart-band results provided another piece of the story. Participants showed increased spontaneous physical activity during the daytime after receiving the treatment. This suggested that changes measured by doctors were accompanied by changes in how patients behaved in their everyday environments.
When the researchers looked more closely at what might explain the increased activity, apathy stood out. Patients whose apathy improved more tended to show greater increases in daily activity. This association was stronger than the link between reduced depression and increased movement.
The relationship also did not appear to depend simply on whether patients were younger or had lived with Parkinson’s for a shorter time. That finding raises an interesting possibility: restoring motivation could be an important route to helping some people with Parkinson’s become more engaged in everyday life. It also highlights why depression and apathy should not automatically be treated as the same problem.
The research was published in Acta Neuropsychiatrica. The authors believe wearable technology could complement traditional hospital assessments by showing whether treatment benefits continue after a patient leaves the clinic.
This approach could be useful because a short medical appointment captures only a small part of a person’s life. A patient may perform well during an examination but struggle to remain active at home, or the opposite may occur. Continuous wearable measurements can provide additional information about movement, sleep, and daily routines.
There are important reasons to be cautious about the results. The study involved only 20 participants, so it cannot establish how well tDCS would work across the much larger and more diverse Parkinson’s population. Small studies can also produce results that appear stronger than they do when tested later in larger groups.
Future research should compare active stimulation with a convincing inactive or placebo treatment, include more patients, and follow them for longer periods. Scientists also need to determine the best stimulation schedule, whether repeated courses are useful, and whether benefits continue after treatment stops. Safety and effectiveness must be evaluated carefully before the approach can be widely recommended.
Even so, the study offers a useful lesson about how Parkinson’s treatments can be evaluated. A treatment that reduces a symptom score is promising, but evidence that a person is actually becoming more active in ordinary life may be even more meaningful.
Combining brain treatment with wearable measurements could therefore help researchers move toward care that reflects how patients truly function from day to day.
If you care about Parkinson’s disease, please read studies that Vitamin B may slow down cognitive decline, and Mediterranean diet could help lower risk of Parkinson’s.
For more health information, please see recent studies that blueberry supplements may prevent cognitive decline, and results showing Plant-based diets could protect cognitive health from air pollution.
Source: Korea University Ansan Hospital
