After reading about this two-part article on this list, I obtained a copy of it from the Health Sciences Library at McMaster University. I haven't read it through completely and, to be honest, I'd need a very good medical dictionary (and possibly an interpreter) to understand a lot of it but in the first two paragraphs there were three items of interest/news to me. I have included them along with the references connected to them and the reference for the article itself. Copyright laws forbid reproducing the article completely but it would be well worth it to obtain a copy or at least give your health care providers the reference for it. Lang, A. E. & Lozano, A. M. Medical progress: Parkinson's disease. First of two parts. New England Journal of Medicine, 1998; 339:1044-1063. "Age is the single most consistent risk factor and with the increasing age of the general population, the prevalence of Parkinson's Disease will rise steadily in the future. The impact of the disease is indicated by the fact that mortality is two to five times as high among affected persons as among age-matched controls resulting in a marked reduction in life expectancy." (Page 1044) References: Bennett, D.A., Beckett, L.A., Murray, A.M. et al. Prevalence of parkinsonian signs and associated mortality in a community population of older people. N Eng Jmed 1996; 334:71-6. Morens, D. A. M., Davis, J.W., Grandinetti, A., Ross, G. W., Popper, J. S., White, L.G. Epidemiologic observations on Parkinson's disease: incidence and mortality in a prospective study of middle-aged men. Neurology 1996; 46:1044-50. Louis, E.D., Marder, K., Cote, L., Tang, M., Mayeux, R. Mortality from Parkinson's disease. Arch Neurol 1997;54:260-4. ""...neurodegenerative diseases (Parkinson's disease, motor neuron disease, and dementia) are projected to surpass cancer as the second most common cause of death among the elderly by the year 2040." (Page 1044) Reference: Lilienfeld, D. E., Perl, D. P. Projected neurodegenerative disease mortality in the United States, 1990-2040. Neuroepidemiology 1993; 12:219-28. "Underdiagnosis is common; in recent door-to-door studies, up to 24 percent of cases were newly detected at the time of the survey." (Page 1044) De Rijk, M.C., Tzouri, C., Breteler, M.M.B., et al. Prevalence of parkinsonism and Parkinson's disease in Europe: The EUROPARKINSON Collaborative Study. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 1997;62:10-5. =========================================================================== Barbara Patterson [log in to unmask] HSC 2J22 905-525-9140, ext. 22403 School of Nursing ===========================================================================