 |
 |
Connecting Diseases - Are Relatives Of People With Parkinson's Disease More Likely To Have Alzheimer's? By Helen Fields 11/12/04 Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease are such similar diseases that some have wondered whether the two are actually just part of a spectrum of degenerative brain and nerve diseases, with the same underlying causes. Both run in families, so researchers in New York looked at families to see if the two diseases run together. What the researchers wanted to know: Are close relatives of people with Parkinson's disease more likely to have Alzheimer's? What they did: The researchers recruited 487 patients with Parkinson's disease at a New York hospital and a neurology clinic. The patients were matched with 409 controls, who were found by random phone dialing or from a list of Medicare recipients. Each person was given a test for Parkinson's and asked about the health of each of their immediate family members; when possible, interviewers also called up the relatives to check the information. Basically, they were checking to see whether Parkinson's patients' relatives had a better chance of having Alzheimer's than the relatives of people chosen at random. What they found: Relatives of Parkinson's patients did not have a higher chance of having Alzheimer's than relatives of controls. So Alzheimer's and Parkinson's don't seem to be aggregated. What the study means to you: This suggests there is no major overlap in the underlying genetic causes of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, but it doesn't totally exclude the possibility that there are some genes involved in both. Caveats: The relatives' Alzheimer's was diagnosed only roughly, by asking questions about symptoms. Also, since Parkinson's patients who had dementia were excluded, the researchers left out patients who could be more likely to have Alzheimer's in the immediate family. Find out more: Learn about causes of Alzheimer's from the Alzheimer's Association. The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research: http://www.michaeljfox.org/parkinsons/ Read the article: Levy, G., et al. "Lack of Familial Aggregation of Parkinson Disease and Alzheimer Disease." Archives of Neurology. July 2004, Vol. 61, pp. 1033–1039. Abstract online: http://archneur.ama-assn.org SOURCE: AMA - ASSN / US News http://tinyurl.com/56jaz * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn