Botox helps tremors in people with Parkinson’s disease

Reducing face wrinkles is usually why Botox is used but in western Sydney there is another use for the primarily cosmetic injections. A year into the clinical trial and participants are having great results.

Botox is normally to help with facial wrinkles. A clinical trial is returning great results in patients with tremors.

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REDUCING face wrinkles is usually why Botox is used but in western Sydney there is another use for the primarily cosmetic injections.

A Westmead Hospital study is injecting people suffering with debilitating diseases, such as Parkinson’s, to help reduce tremor — and it is working.

Botulinum toxin injections, which include Botox, are being assessed to determine their ability in easing muscle tremors around the shoulder and elbow.

Neurology department movement disorders unit director Victor Fung said tremor was a very common neurological problem, affecting 5 to 6 per cent of people over the age of 70.

“They are able to feed themselves more easily, they are able to cut their food more easily, they are able to drink from a full or near-full cup as opposed to not being able to drink from a cup at all,” he said.

Botox predominantly helps with facial wrinkles but medical professionals are discovering multiple uses for the toxin injections.

The clinical trial started in July last year and has involved 15 people receiving injections.

“Tremor can actually appear at any age and there is a large, unmet clinical need in terms of treatment for tremor,” Dr Fung said.

“What we’re doing different with this is, we’re really focusing on disabling tremor that is generated from muscles around the shoulder and elbow.

“Those muscles can basically be injected more successfully.”

Dr Fung said tremor was difficult to treat effectively with medications and the only other option involved surgery. The use of botulinum toxin opened up a range of possibilities.

Former schoolteacher Philip Webster, 74, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s three years ago. At first he noticed his hand trembling, particularly his fingers, and then his arms started to shake.

Westmead Hospital movement disorders unit director at the Department of Neurology's Dr Victor Fung with patient Philip Webster.

He found he could no longer put pen to paper.

He said that since being part of the trial he had noticed an improvement.

“I’ve now been able to take notes, write a sentence — slowly — it’s not as fluent as it used to be but it’s much better,” Mr Webster said.

Westmead Hospital was the first to run the randomised controlled trial and, if successful, it will advocate for funding of the treatment on a wider scale.