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Laura, Welcome to ther list. I am a psychiatrist with PD so I may be able to shed some light on your issue. I am not aware of any data to support the statement that depression leads to PD. There is a lot written about PWP (people with PD) being more subect to depression. There are a large number of PWP who take antidepressants successfully including me. That is usually appropriate and useful. The question about alzheimers (SDAT)(senile dementia Alzheimers Type) is more complex. The diagnosis of SDAT like PD is generally a clinical diagnosis (or postmortum). That is imaging and lab tests- at least those that are well-studied and generally accepted may be altered but they are not diagnostic of the disease. PD unfortunately can lead to a Dementia that is clinically indistinguishable feom SDAT so if your father has a true dementia the differentiation is academic. But if he has drug toxicity from one (or a combination) of his meds, a psychosis secondary to meds or the PD), or a pseudodementia related to incomplete treatment of his depression there is hope that the process is reversible. A good psychiatrist who has some familiarity with PD should be able to help sort that out. Also, when the neurologist said (via dad's wife) that your father had all the genetic markers was that through dna testing (usually done only in the most sophisticated research centers) or via other means. The markers as a test are not firmly established. Also PD does not usually run in families- except in rare cases or if it does its expression in the offspring is so incomplete that it is nothing to worry about for you over the long run. If you run any increased risk of contracting PD at all that risk is very small. I hope I answered your questions. Charlie -- ********************************************************** CHARLES T. MEYER, M.D. MADISON, WISCONSIN [log in to unmask] **********************************************************