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Thanks to Bev and Tom for some good, practical suggestions. We will try them today. I agree that festination is a major contributing factor to Iain's falling and if we can develop some techniques to help him overcome this, it would make his life so much easier. I guess I am confused about what is a symptom of PD and what is a manifestation of the treatment being used. I always thought that festination was one of the symptoms of PD. But it seems, in Iain's case anyway, that festination is a side-effect of the medication he is taking, since this walking problem only happens when is meds are at their peak. So, is festination a sinemet problem that would go away if another treatment could be found? How many of the troubling, debilitating symptoms that are attributed to PD are really caused by the current medications? For another example, Iain becomes severely dyskinetic when even on a low dosage of sinemet. So, as I mentioned, he has had to cut back drastically on his meds. So, although he is very stiff and slow and looks quite disabled to me, other people are now telling me how much better he looks lately. In other words, the side-effects of the medication, not the PD itself, are what casual onlookers think are the symptoms of PD. Dyskenias is very upsetting for people who know nothing about PD - more upsetting than the ridigity for sure. Waiting for the magic bullet..... Barb Bates Barbara Duffin-Bates Program Support Vaughan Memorial Library Acadia University 1-902-585-1378 [log in to unmask]