Um, so drugs are actually good for you?
From the article on the treatment of Parkinson's Disease:
The authors tested a number of drugs at various doses and found that in addition to L-DOPA-related treatments, drugs related to amphetamine were effective in ameliorating muscle rigidity, tremor, and impaired movement in these mice. Most effective was methylenedioxymethamphetamine HCl (MDMA), commonly known as ecstasy.
...
Future work will be required to understand how MDMA was able to ameliorate the symptoms of Parkinson's in these mice and to assess the toxicity of MDMA and related compounds in greater detail in the future. However, this study opens the door to a search for compounds related to ecstasy, which may provide a more effective treatment in the later stages of the disease - and hopefully allow patients to perform the simple functions of everyday life independently again.
Er, party on, Parkinson's patients!
The authors tested a number of drugs at various doses and found that in addition to L-DOPA-related treatments, drugs related to amphetamine were effective in ameliorating muscle rigidity, tremor, and impaired movement in these mice. Most effective was methylenedioxymethamphetamine HCl (MDMA), commonly known as ecstasy.
...
Future work will be required to understand how MDMA was able to ameliorate the symptoms of Parkinson's in these mice and to assess the toxicity of MDMA and related compounds in greater detail in the future. However, this study opens the door to a search for compounds related to ecstasy, which may provide a more effective treatment in the later stages of the disease - and hopefully allow patients to perform the simple functions of everyday life independently again.
Er, party on, Parkinson's patients!
