Treatment Options for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy

No medication or procedure is available to cure progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) or completely control its symptoms, but strategies and methods can help manage many of the symptoms.

To improve balance and improve flexibility of the muscles, medications used to treat Parkinson's disease may be effective. These include the drug levodopa, which may sometimes be used in conjunction with other drugs. Antidepressants can help the depression or irritability seen commonly in this disease.

If you have PSP, you may be able to use certain aids to make life easier. Special glasses with prisms may improve your vision. A weighted tool that helps you walk more easily can prevent you from falling backward. Physical therapy and exercise may slightly improve flexibility in some people.

When symptoms are advanced and swallowing becomes too difficult, you may need a feeding tube—a tube that goes from an opening made in the skin of your abdomen into the stomach—to provide you with needed nutrition.

Complications

PSP can cause serious complications when symptoms affect your ability to swallow. You could easily choke on food or breathe food into your lungs. And being more likely to fall increases the risk of suffering a serious injury to the head or breaking a bone.