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Date: Wed, 05 Jul 95 15:44:00 PDT From: Carrie Barrott <[log in to unmask]> Subject: To: Ilan Feuchtwang Ilan, I highly recommend that you read The Case of the Frozen Addicts by Dr. William Langston, MD. There is a case mentioned about a man who worked in a lab and later developed PD. I am sure that you are right, that your father's and his colleague's PD stem from the same source. Hi, Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ilan Feuchtwang, and I am a graduate student in Molecular Biology at the University Of Wisconsin. My father was diagnosed as having PD about 4 years ago. We have strong suspicions that his disease was caused by exposure to environmental neurotoxins at his workplace. He was a professor of Physics, and both he and a colleague who shared an office together for several years came down with Parkinson's Disease about a year apart and they have identical symptoms somewhat different from typical PD in that they dont have tremors, and the progression of the disease appears to be much more rapid. Within the past year the SInemet has really begun to lose his efficacy and he is in pain due to stifness and doesnt have the strength or energy for even short walks. IN the past 7 months he has become afflicted with many problems at night such as hallucinations and nightmares and he wakes up several times a night to go to the bathroom. The doctors prescribed Clozapine for his nightime symptoms. However the clozapine exacerbates his drug induced confusion by completely knocking him out the next day and under the influence of this drug he is much less lucid and communicative the next day, often only recovering from it and appearing more awake in the afternoon. In terms of his motor symptoms, he is definitely undermedicated, however there is a balance between his mental state and the motor symtoms. If we try to medicate his motor problems away, we do so at the expense of causing mental confusion. In spite of spending a week in the hospital seeing specialists he is still much worse then he was 6 months ago. I was contemplating the use of dopamine analogs such as Permax since the Sinemets have really lost their efficacy, however the Doctor says that analogs would increase hallucinations. So at the moment we are really at a loss for what to do to alleviate my father's condition. It is also very hard on my Mom, since at night when my father wakes up every 2-3 hours, he needs help getting in and out of bed to go to the bathroom. For some reason all his symptoms are far worse at night. I would appreciate any suggestions people may have in terms of medications or surgery etc.. Thank You, Ilan Feuchtwang