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Dear Dr Chew, I was in much pain today, as my piformis muscles were in a state of contraction for over five hours, thus giving rise to "Piriformis syndrome". in which the sciatic nerve is compressed or otherwise irritated by the piriformis muscle in the buttocks, causing pain, tingling and numbness in the buttocks and along the path of the sciatic nerve descending down the lower thigh and into the leg. It gives rise to intense pain. I tried relieving it by taking 1000mg paracetamol. Then four hours later, when the pain was still nearly unbearable, I took another 1000mg. AFter 5 hours from when it started, the pain lessened to where it was bearable. The day before yesterday, I had an episode of intense dyskinesia (unwonted, uncontrolable writhing) of the head and ncek, arms and legs. This lasted for over six hours. I mention thse two incidents to make the point that most conventional sources of information about PD state that PD "does not cause pain". If these episodes were not painful, I am no judge of pain. I think that contiued exposure to intense pain, and the wearying muscle strain of dyskinesia eventually "wear out" the body. It fills me with anger when people who have never experienced the pain that PD can cause, make pronouncements that "PD is not painful." Another "myth" is that a death of a person with PD is not a death "caused by" PD, as distinct to death "accompanied by" PD, I can . give a gaphic picture of what I think about that. Imagne that a man falls from the top of a 100 foot tall building, and dashes himself to death on the pavement. Are we expected to believe that it was only the last foot of his fall that killed him, and that the previous 99 feet contributed nothing? Similarly.are not the years o sufffering caused by PD before a person's death a contributing factor to his death? I belive that PD a tleast contributes to the death of a person, if not causes the death. In Australia in 200, Parkinson's Disease accounted for 20% of all deaths due to Diseases of the nervous system and 0.8% of all deaths registered in 2007. There were 1,109 deaths due to this disease, with a median age at death of 82.7 years. The number of male deaths (672) due to this disease was higher than the number of female deaths (437). This was similar to the overall trend for the past 10 years. The figure of 1,109 is, in the o[inion of the Central West (of NSW) Parkinson's Disease Research group, only 10% of the real figure, and is only the data which is given as the primary cause of death by the doctor signing the death certificate. PD as a contributing factor, or PD as a pre-existing condition, is not counted. Then you have the occasion where the cretifying doctor is not aware of the patient's PD, and so is not in a position to include it on the death certificate. In order to get a clear picture of the death statistics for PD, we in Australia will be conducting a campaign: 1. To try and get PD recognised as a legitimate primary cause of death 2. To try and have it made compulsory to enter onto a death cetificate, that the person had a condition of PD. 3. If PD is present and cannot be ascertained to be the primary cause of death by the person certifying the death, then PD should be entered as being a contributing factor. Jim ------------------------------------ Dr J. F. Slattery PhD Soc Sc ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn