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(6 May 97) Fatigue in PD: I have posted comments here before about my personal experience with fatigue. Striking that it is mentioned frequently by members of the PD listserv, but almost never in the literature about PD. The Merck Manual briefly mentions "chronic fatigue syndrome" but has little to say. In my experience the fatigue (more accurately, lack of endurance) is real, accompanied by increased breathing and pulse rate, but also by muscle pain. The pain is not in the muscles that have been used, but in the thoracic region of the back. Contrary to Brian Collins' recent note, it seems to go with undermedication rather than overmedication. Temporarily advancing the Sinemet (levodopa) schedule usually relieves the pain. In hindsight, this condition may have preceded my diagnosis of PD by 2 decades or more. I used to be an avid mountain hiker and backpacker, going out for 10 or 15 miles in a day without distress. Then about 1985 I began to notice, when with a group of similar experience, I was having trouble keeping up. Sometimes on a solo trip I would be so tired by lunchtime that I gave up and went back. I thought this merely indicated I was "out of shape" so I started doing things like the RCAF BX-5 workouts, or skipping rope, etc., but it didn Lately I've been wondering if this "fatigue" is a failure of parts of the autonomous nervous system, that accompanies the central nervous system symptoms of PD. As you know, dopamine is ubiquitous in the body, made for example in the adrenal glands, and it must have many important functions beside those in the basal ganglia. So far, just a notion, although the autonomous system is getting a little attention from PD researchers (an assortment of 12 reports was made at the XII International Symposium 6 weeks or so ago). Cheers, Joe J. R. Bruman (818) 789-3694 3527 Cody Road Sherman Oaks CA 91403 On Mon, 5 May 1997, Martin K Bayne wrote: > When I was first diagnosed with PD 3 yrs ago at age 44 I thought, "Gee, > this ain't so bad. So I've got some tremors, a weird arm swing and tend > to drag my foot. I can live with this. Think of all the poor blokes like > Christopher Reeves who REALLY have it bad." > > Then, about two months ago, I was introduced to a gentleman by the name > of Mr. Fatigue. Now it seems the two of us are inseparable. We travel > everywhere together. You'd think we were best buddies. > > Truth is...I can't shake the creep. He's on me like a cheap suit, and > he's got the tenacity of a pit bull and the persistence of a life > insurance salesman. And he's making my life *miserable*. > > Do any of you fellow travelers have any suggestions? > > Martin Bayne [log in to unmask] 150 mg sinemet 6 X day & 30 mg paxil >