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from : WEMOVE NEWS Oct. 19, 2004 http://www.imakenews.com/wemovenews/index000063582.cfm?x=b3M543q,b23F7l0n ,w Another chat event on “Off-time Management in Parkinson’s disease (PD)” is now scheduled for October 27, 2004, at 7:00 PM EDT. Participants are invited to discuss their experiences with “off time” and ask questions of the expert, Mark Stacy, MD. Dr. Stacy is Medical Director of the Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorder Center at Duke University Medical Center. Topics to be covered include: what exactly “off-time” is; how people living with PD identify “wearing off” and describe it to their doctors; and what treatment options are available for “off-time” management. Ask the Expert Live Chat Event Date: October 27, 2004 Time: 7:00 PM EDT Where: Go to http://www.wemove.org/chat/ Once you enter the main Chat area, click on the “Rooms” tab on the right and then click on the room called “Off-time Management in PD.” To read the transcript of the first chat, which was held on September 29th, please go to http://www.wemove.org/par/otm_chat_transcript.html. You can read this transcript online or download a pdf file to print and read at your convenience. Also, be sure to visit the WE MOVE “Off-time Management Discussion Forum,” where you may post your questions and receive feedback and support from other people with PD and their caregivers. To access the Discussion Forum, go to http://www.wemove.org/forumX/. Once in the main Forum room, scroll down and click on “Off-time Management in PD.” http://www.imakenews.com/wemovenews/e_article000315902.cfm?x=b3M543q,b23 F7l0n ------------------------------------------------------------------ October 16, 2004 Pain in Parkinson’s Disease http://www.imakenews.com/wemovenews/e_article000315903.cfm?x=b3M543q,b23F 7l0n,w Approximately 40% to 75% of people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) experience pain on a regular basis, and some patients report that pain was their first symptom of PD. A variety of factors—from a stiff shoulder or back to dyskinesias or problems with bones and muscles—may cause the pain. However, 30% of people with PD who have pain are unable to explain the source of their pain; they simply have odd sensations or an ill-defined general sense of tension and discomfort. Researchers in Italy recently studied pain in 36 patients with PD whose symptoms affected only one side of the body and 15 patients who had PD with motor fluctuations. They compared the results of several tests conducted in these patients to results from 38 healthy control subjects and also determined the number of people in these three groups who had pain. Subjects with PD were not allowed to take any medication after their evening dose and were then studied the following morning. Those with motor fluctuations were studied in the morning before taking their PD medication and again later in the day after having taken their medication (resulting in testing during both the “on” and “off” periods). The researches measured the subjects’ overall feelings of pain using a visual-analog scale. They also applied two special devices to the surface of the subjects’ skin to measure three thresholds: the point at which participants experienced (1) a sense of warmth, (2) mechanical pain, and (3) heat pain. The first device, called a thermode, was used to heat or cool the skin—as the temperature of the thermode was increased, participants were asked to indicate when they experienced warmth on their skin and then to indicate when they felt pain related to that warmth (heat pain). The other device, called von Frey filaments, was used to determine subjects’ perception of pressure. The apparatus was attached to the subjects’ forearms and increasing pressure was applied until the subjects indicated that the sensation was painful (mechanical pain). The results of this study showed that there were no differences between the participants with PD and the control subjects in mechanical pain thresholds or in the point at which subjects experienced a sense of warmth. There was also no difference in these measurements between the two sides of the body in those patients with PD on only one side of their bodies. And finally, there was no difference in heat pain thresholds between “on” and “off” periods in those patients with motor fluctuation. However, heat pain thresholds were significantly lower in patients with PD as compared with controls. In those with one-sided PD, the affected side had lower heat pain thresholds compared to the less-affected side. They also found that those subjects who had more pain in general had lower heat pain thresholds. In an accompanying editorial, Drs. Buzas and Max from the National Institutes of Health wrote that “Their findings that parkinsonian motor symptoms and spontaneous pain are associated with large increases in sensitivity to heat pain is convincing and novel and demands that researchers in pain, motor systems, and neurodegeneration join forces to explain it.” Djaldetti R, Shifrin A, Rogowski Z, Sprecher E, Melamed E, Yarnitsky D. Quantitative measurement of pain sensation in patients with Parkinson disease. Neurology 2004;62(12):2171-2175. Buzas B, Max, MB. Pain in Parkinson disease. Neurology 2004;62(12):2156-2157. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn