Science, medicine, and the future: Parkinson's disease

Abstract

Parkinson's disease is the commonest neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer's disease, with an estimated incidence of 20/100 000 and a prevalence of 150/100 000. It is characterised clinically by asymmetric onset of bradykinesia, rigidity, and, usually, resting tremor. The cause of the most common clinical features is the death of dopaminergic neurones in the substantia nigra of the midbrain. Lewy bodies are present in a proportion of surviving neurones. At the pathological level there is overlap with other neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer's disease, and this has been used to support the view that these diseases may share some common pathogenetic mechanisms.