Apollo Hospitals organised an awareness meeting on Parkinson’s disease on Saturday ahead of the World Parkinson’s Day to be observed on Monday.
A release from the hospital said that it had formed a Parkinson’s disease support group with patients, their family members, physicians and surgeons, neuroscientists, therapists and others, to provide comprehensive care for the patients.
Vijay Shankar, consultant clinical lead neurologist at the hospital, said the awareness about the diseases was poor in India and many people ignored the early symptoms. He said a large percentage of the patients approached the hospitals after they endured a long period of suffering.
While medications were available to address the symptoms of the disease, their effectiveness declined over time with the progression of the disease, he said. In such situations, advanced treatment options like deep brain stimulation (DBS) procedure can help in improving the quality of life of patients, he emphasised.