PARKINSON'S DISEASE NEWS

19th December 2009 - New research

THE EFFECT OF PARKINSON'S DISEASE ON DRIVING ABILITY

Neurology [2009] 73 (24) : 2112-2119 (Uc EY, Rizzo M, Johnson AM, Dastrup E, Anderson SW, Dawson JD.) Complete abstract

Overall, drivers with Parkinson's Disease had poorer road safety when driving, when compared to people that did not have Parkinson's Disease. However, there was found to be considerable variability among the drivers with Parkinson's Disease. Some of them performed normally, or even better than normal. Drivers with Parkinson's Disease committed more safety errors compared to controls. Over three quarters of people with Parkinson's Disease committed more errors.

However, the number of errors was not much greater (only 1.26 times more).  Lane violations were the most common error category, but that was the same for people that did not have Parkinson's Disease. Older age made errors more likely in Parkinson's Disease.  Familiarity with the local driving environment made differences in some error categories insignificant. Although it is often assumed that Parkinson's Disease makes driving more difficult, overall it does not reduce driving ability by much in most people, and in some not at all. In order to refer to this article on its own click here.

18th December 2009 - New book

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PARKINSON'S DISEASE

Anthony D.Mosley, Deborah S.Romaine, Ali M.D.Samii

Publisher's description : This encyclopedia by a neurologist specializing in Parkinson's disease and a medical writer provides an overview of the illness. More than 600 alphabetical entries with cross-references describe all aspects of the disease. Entries range in length from one paragraph to several pages and include drugs used in treatment, surgical procedures, anatomy and physiology, related conditions, practical considerations such as coping with diagnosis, home safety, biographies, and organizations. Appendixes list organizations and resources and Medicaid offices. A bibliography of books and articles and an index complete the work. Click here for more details.  For more books concerning Parkinson's Disease go to Parkinson's Disease Books.

3rd December 2009 - New research

PARKINSON'S DISEASE WAS DESCRIBED IN 1690

Parkinsonism Related Disorders [2009] (D.Bereczki) Complete abstract

A detailed description of Parkinson's Disease has been discovered that dates from 1690. That is over a century before the first claimed formal description in 1817 by James Parkinson, after whom Parkinson's Disease was subsequently named.

Symptoms of Parkinson's Disease, most frequently tremor, have been described since ancient times and throughout history. For more information go to The History of Parkinson's Disease. However, the first systematic description of Parkinson's Disease is usually attributed to James Parkinson in 1817. 127 years before James Parkinson described it, the Hungarian doctor Ferenc Pápai Páriz (1649-1716) described in his medical text Pax Corporis not only individual signs of Parkinson's Disease, but all four cardinal signs : tremor, bradykinesia, rigor and postural instability. The book was published in Hungarian, which because it is understood by so few people, has resulted in his description of Parkinson's Disease being ignored in the medical literature all this time. In order to refer to this article on its own click here.