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16th July 2008 - New research suicide in parkinson's disease Movement Disorders [2008] Jul 10; [Epub ahead of print] (Nazem S, Siderowf AD, Duda JE, Brown GK, Ten Have T, Stern MB, Weintraub D.) Complete abstract In Parkinson's disease, there is a high prevalence of depression. This is because dopamine, whose deficiency normally causes the muscular symptoms of Parkinson's Disease, also affects the emotions. Many people with Parkinson's Disease consequently effectively become biochemically depressed. Depression increases the likelihood of suicide and thoughts of death. However, little was known of their prevalence in Parkinson's Disease. People with Parkinson's Disease were assessed using the Paykel scale. Respondents answer each item either "yes" or "no" to the following questions. The items can assess suicidality during the past week, month, year or lifetime. More relevant to somebody with Parkinson's Disease is for the answers to concern recent months : 1. Have you ever felt that life was not worth living ? 2. Have you ever wished you were dead? for instance, that you could go to sleep and not wake up ? 3. Have you ever thought of taking your life, even if you would not really do it ? 4. Have you ever reached the point where you seriously considered taking your life or perhaps made plans how you would go about doing it? 5. Have you ever made an attempt to take your life ? Extensive psychiatric, neuropsychological, and neurological assessments were also carried out. Thoughts of death occurred in 28% of patients. Thoughts of suicide occurred in 11% of patients. Thoughts of either had occurred in 30% of patients. Of all those assessed, 4% had attempted suicide during their lifetime. Depression was far more common than normal. Even more common was impulse control disorder, but this was probably due to Parkinson's Disease drugs, especially dopamine agonists. Psychosis was also far more common in Parkinson's Disease, but this was also probably due to Parkinson's Disease drugs, especially L-dopa. source: Viartis Rayilyn Brown Director AZNPF Arizona Chapter National Parkinson Foundation [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn