22nd March 2014 - New research

THE EFFECT OF AGE OF ONSET ON PARKINSON'S DISEASE

Parkinsonism Related Disorders [2014] Feb 22 [Epub ahead of print] (R.Mehanna, S.Moore, J.G.Hou, A.I.Sarwar, E.C.Lai) Complete abstract

The clinical features and development of Parkinson's Disease has been found to differ in many respects according to the age of onset of Parkinson's Disease.

The age of onset can be roughly divided in to young onset (49 years old or younger), middle onset (50 to 69 years old), and late onset (70 years old or later). Data collected included age at symptom onset, year of onset, family history of Parkinson's disease in first and second degree relatives, predominant first symptom, first anti parkinsonian medication prescribed, frequency of L-dopa-induced dyskinesia, therapy related dystonia, therapy related gastrointestinal side effects, hallucinations, dementia, depression and apathy. In numbers, the middle onset was the largest group (51%), followed by those with late onset (39%) and then those with young onset (10%).

Those with young onset were found to have a more frequent family history of Parkinson's disease and longer survival. Symptoms other than tremor were more frequent as the initial symptom of the young onset group. Depression was more frequent in the young onset group than middle onset or old onset. The frequency of tremor as the first symptom increased with advancing age at onset. The frequency of treatment related dyskinesia or dystonia decreased with advancing age at onset. For more news go to Parkinson's Disease News.