AD/PD 2026 | Advice for referring patients with Parkinson’s disease for advanced therapies
Fabrizio Stocchi, MD, PhD, IRCCS San Raffaele Rome, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy, shares advice for referring patients with Parkinson’s disease for advanced therapies. Prof. Stocchi highlights that there are risks associated with these therapies, so they should only be used when the patient really needs them. This interview took place at the AD/PD™ 2026 International Conference on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases in Copenhagen, Denmark.
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Transcript
When the patient arrives in an advanced stage, of course, we need something which we call advanced therapy. This comprises infusion, subcutaneous infusion of levodopa or apomorphine, intraduodenal infusion of levodopa, and DBS, deep brain stimulation. And nowadays they’re trying also to use the FUS, I mean the ultrasound approach, which is similar to the DBS in terms of what you obtain in terms of lesion...
When the patient arrives in an advanced stage, of course, we need something which we call advanced therapy. This comprises infusion, subcutaneous infusion of levodopa or apomorphine, intraduodenal infusion of levodopa, and DBS, deep brain stimulation. And nowadays they’re trying also to use the FUS, I mean the ultrasound approach, which is similar to the DBS in terms of what you obtain in terms of lesion. Of course, DBS is the one having the most experience being already available since about 30 years and they improved the system and the control and also the device. But my opinion is that this kind of approach should be used when the patient really needs it. So that means that the patient is in an advanced stage, having motor fluctuations or dyskinesia, which are difficult to control. And because DBS, as well as other treatments, is not without problems or side effects. So using DBS too early in PD I think is a risk and from my point of view it should be used when the patient really needs it.
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