Modifying the Progression of Parkinson’s Disease

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive and severely disabling movement disorder of unknown aetiology. The prevalence of the disease increases with advancing age, from approximately 0.5% at age 60 to 2% at age 85. As social and medical changes increase the average life span, the prevalence and hence the financial and social costs of the disease are likely to rise. Despite decades of laboratory and clinical research at present there is no therapy that has been shown conclusively to retard the progression of PD. A number of interventions have been suggested to influence disease progression but design faults in the relevant clinical trials have led to difficulties interpreting their findings [1]. This chapter will discuss firstly the rationale for the development of neuroprotective therapy in PD and the problems that are faced by clinical trials of the effect of medication on disease progression.