Depression is not detected early enough or treated aggressively enough according to data and recommendations from the National Parkinson Foundation’s Quality Improvement Initiative “Report to the Community”. USA Today interviewed Dr. Michael Okun, Medical Director for NPF and also the Co-Director of the…
Jenna Dietz, M.S., a 5th year graduate student in neuropsychology, was awarded the 2012 Walter G. McMillen Memorial Award for Parkinson Disease Research by the American Psychological Association. This award is intended to stimulate the interest of students in Parkinson disease research. Jenna received a plaque as well as a…
Post doctoral fellow, Dr. Elizabeth Stegemoller is interviewed in a recent Parkinson’s Action Network feature. In February, the Parkinson’s Action Network hosted its inaugural Postdoctoral Investigator Poster Session inWashington,DC, at which 17 researchers presented their work in the field of Parkinson’s research. After the poster session, Dr. Stegemoller stayed in Washington…
Perhaps contrary to a recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine, resistance training (or weight lifting) is quite beneficial for persons with PD. In a recent paper published from the Applied Neuromechanics Lab here at UF, resistance training led to significant and clinically relevant improvements in the length…
The University of Florida Center for Movement Disorders & Neurorestoration will host the first annual Symposium/ThinkTank on Parkinsonism and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) on Friday, February 17th at the McKnight Brain Institute. Discussion will range from clinical to basic science and featured panelists include Irene Litvan, MD, the Director of…
UF graduate students in association with the Applied Neuromechanics Laboratory directed by Dr. Hass have published recent papers examining potential strategies for Parkinson patients to improve their ability to start walking. Altering the way you stand improves your ability to start walking. Positive emotions improve your ability to…
At the 63rd Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) in Honolulu Dr. Michael S. Okun, co-director of the UF Center for Movement Disorders & Neurorestoration, along with Lauren Bowen, one of our promising medical students who matched here for her Neurology residency, received the AAN’s…
Dr. Okun spoke this morning at the American Association for the Advancement of Science 177th Annual meeting in Washington DC. Three other UF researchers will also be speaking at different points this weekend. Okun’s presentation at 9 a.m. Friday will deal with the growing opportunity to provide…
Hosted here at the UF McKnight Brain Institute, the Tyler’s Hope Think Tank is bringing together a couple dozen of the best minds in dystonia research to present some of their research and thoughts, and to provide questions and critiques on their colleagues’ work to push the field forward. For…
Please read the complete article here. Excerpts follow: Together, the findings suggest that gene therapy to enable the brain to retain its ability to produce dopamine, a neurotransmitter that falls in critically short supply in Parkinson’s patients, could be safely attempted during earlier stages of the disease…
