I was encouraged by most of these numbers for improved quality of life.....and thinking the procedure should improve going forward.

Most Parkinson's Patient Expectations Met on DBS Improvements, Study Says

Am I missing something? If I understand the report on the paper correctly, it contains a curious mixture of data.

E.g. "a significant reduction in total levodopa equivalent daily doses (mg/day) of 50.45% was observed in patients treated with STN-DBS". Although, everything else being equal, this is desirable, it is not the same thing as a 50.45% reduction in symptoms.

E.g. "Most patients reported that expectations of improvement after DBS were met, namely 64% for motor symptoms, 71% for quality of life, and 83% for reductions in daily medication dose." I take this to mean that if I went into the procedure with the expectation that, for some measure, I would get an improvement of 10%, say, and I got this, then I could write that 100% of my expectations in that measure had been met.

John

John,

Is another way of languaging what you are saying here is that intake is not the same thing as amount absorbed? MD

moondaugther,

What you say is correct. But that wasn't the point I was trying to make.

Suppose a doctor gives me a drug promising that it would halve my tremor, while not making anything else worse. I take the drug and it does just that. It has done exactly what I was told it would do: it has met 100% of my expectations. But, even if we only consider tremor, it has only met half my need.

Perhaps this is one of the occasions where UK English and US English differ. For instance, in the UK we tell our children to walk on the "pavement"!

John