Parkinson prevalence

Psychotic symptoms in late life (greater than 65 years of age) are generally a result of an ongoing chronic illness carried over from younger life however, a small percentage of patients develop psychotic symptoms de novo, defined as late-life schizophrenia. The 6-month prevalence rate of schizophrenia in the elderly is around 1%. However, other illnesses presenting with psychotic symptoms are common in this population, as approximately one-third of patients with Alzheimer s disease, Parkinson s disease, and vascular dementia experience psychotic symptoms. The majority of data for antipsychotic use in the elderly comes from experience treating these other disease states. 

Huang, X., Chen, P. C. and Poole, C. APOE-epsilon2 allele associated with higher prevalence of sporadic Parkinson disease. Neurology 62 2198-2202, 2004. 

Nicotine in tobacco has always been used for medicinal purposes. Nicotine solutions made from soaking tobacco leaves in water have been used as pesticides for several hundred years. In modern times, numerous pharmaceutical companies have explored nicotines use for treating diseases. Nicotines most prevalent medicinal use is for smoking cessation in the form of alternate delivery systems such as gums and dermal patches. Nicotine is used medically for numerous conditions and its use is being explored in additional areas including pain relievers, attention deficit disorder medications and medications associated with Alzheimer s disease, Parkinson disease, colitis, herpes, and tuberculosis. Because of nicotines potential therapeutic use, several large tobacco companies have developed pharmaceutical divisions. 

Parkinson disease usually begins in the fifth or sixth decade, and symptoms progressively worsen over a period of 10 to 20 years. It is estimated that more than 1 percent of the U.S. population older than 60 years is afflicted with Parkinson disease, making it one of the most prevalent neurologic disorders affecting elderly individuals.59 In addition to the symptoms of bradykinesia and rigidity, a patient with advanced Parkinson disease maintains a flexed posture and speaks in a low, soft voice (microphonia). If left untreated, the motor problems associated with this illness eventually lead to total incapacitation. Rehabilita-... 

Rheumatoid arthritis has been reported to be associated with RLS in up to 25 % of cases [43], but serological analysis of 68 RLS patients failed to find association with rheumatological serologies [44], The same holds true for diabetes, often reported in association with RLS however, a recent extensive clinical study did not find a significantly higher prevalence of RLS in diabetic patients [44], Neuropathies associated with rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes may be the cause of RLS in these patients. In patients with end-stage kidney disease, reports showed a mild or overt (from moderate to severe) RLS in up to 62 % of cases [45,46], No correlation with iron levels or other uremia characteristics such as a decrease in parathormone levels has been found [46], Parkinson s disease (PD) has frequently been associated with... 

Circunstantial evidence directly implicating dopamine in the pathogenesis of duodenal ulcer in man is the unusual incidence of peptic ulcer disease in dopamine-deficient disorders. From purely descriptive clinical and epidemiologic studies we know that patients with Parkinson s disease, before the introduction of dopamine therapy, had an excess of ulcer disease (72). One report even comments on the curiosity that after initiation of L-DOPA administration the ulcer symptoms have virtually disappeared (72 ). On the other hand, less clearly, schizophrenia which is associated with dopamine excess and/or receptor hyperactivity is accompanied by virtual lack, or decreased prevalence, of peptic ulcer (73-76). Schizophrenia associated with ulcer disease has been viewed as a reportable curiosity in medical literature (75). At present, possibly because of the widespread therapeutic application of neuroleptics, the lack of peptic ulcer disease in schizophrenics is less striking than in the past. On the other hand, we recently observed in our autopsy series perforated duodenal ulcers in two schizophrenic patients who had been on large doses of haloperidol therapy (Szabo, unpublished observation). Thus, even in man, dopamine may indeed be implicated in the pathogenesis of duodenal ulcer disease. 

Voytko ML, Olton DS, Richardson RT, Gorman LK, Tobin JR, Price DL (1994) Basal forebrain lesions in monkeys disrupt attention but not learning and memory. J Neurosci 14 167-186 von Campenhausen S, Bomschein B, Wick R, Botzel K, Sampaio C, Poewe W, Oertel W, Siebert U, Berger K, Dodel R (2005) Prevalence and incidence of Parkinson s disease in Europe. Eur... 

Whether Asians are at greater risk of antipsychotic-induced parkinsonism is also uncertain. In one study, Asian patients developed symptoms of parkinsonism while taking lower weight-adjusted doses and exhibiting lower serum haloperidol concentrations in comparison with Caucasian patients (Lin et al. 1989). In contrast, another study found little difference between Asians and whites, with 40% of Asian patients developing parkinsonism within 2 weeks of initiation of haloperidol therapy, compared with 35% of Caucasians (Binder and Levy 1981). In a study conducted in Japan (Binder et al. 1987), the prevalence of antipsychotic-induced parkinsonism was found to be 18%-40%, comparable to rates reported in the United States. Thus the data concerning Asians are contradictory. 

The mean age at the onset of Alzheimer s disease is approximately 80 years, and the manifestation of the illness before the age of 60-65 years is very rare. In the age cohort 65-69, Alzheimer s disease has a prevalence of only 1%. This increases to about 20% in the 85- to 89-year-old group and the risk of precipitating the disease can reach the 50% level among persons 95 years of age and over (Campion et al. 1999 Hy et al. 2000 Helmer et al. 2001 Nussbaum and Ellis 2003). The prevalence of Parkinson s disease over the age of 80 is only 1-3% (Tanner et al. 1996). 

Goldsmith et al. (1990) investigated a cluster of Parkinson s disease in the southern region of Israel. They reported an increased prevalence of Parkinsonism particularly among those 50-59 years old, which suggested early onset of the disease. The authors believed that a potential environmental cause was the... 

Kuhn, W., Winkel, R., Woitalla, D., Meves, S., Przuntek, H., and Muller, T., High prevalence of Parkinsonism after occupational exposure to lead-sulfate batteries. Neurology, 50(6), 1885, 1998. 

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