A new research from RAMBAM hospital shows that Guided Affective Imagery (דמיון מודרך) can make the tremors of Parkinson’s disease go away.

The relationship between the mind and the body has never been fully determined. Worse, the field is wide open for charlatans, holistic healers, homeopaths, naturopaths and what-have-you. However, from time to time we get some ‘real’ peer-reviewed scientific papers that offer new insights on the mind-body link. Such a paper was recently published in the Movement Disorders Journal, in which two researchers from RAMBAM hospital describe a new treatment for Parkinson’s disease patients: Guided Affective Imagery, also known in Hebrew as דמיון מודרך.

Twenty patients registered to the research, all of them suffering from tremors. By the end of each treatment, all the patients experienced a significant relief from the tremors, and in most of them (75%) the tremors subsided altogether. The tremor levels were measured objectively via an accelerometer, and some of the patients were also monitored with an EEG during the relaxation.

Of course, as with all new papers that claim a breakthrough, caution must be taken in translating the results into a commercial product. I would be much happier if the research included a control group who were asked to simply rest instead of practicing guided affective imagery. However, assuming that there is no fluke in the results, then this research opens a new road for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease patients. Perhaps the bio-medical engineers can come into the picture by modifying some of the portable, affordable, EEG personal readers and devising a software that will enable the patient to do his own exercise at home.

Source: RAMBAM Hospital press release

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