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According to the recent authoritative review of PD in the New England Journal of Medicine [Lang and Lozano NEJM 339:1044-1053, 1998] Idiopathic PD "affects over 1 million people in North America." This estimate does not include people with Parkinson's plus or parkinsonism. The authors also point out that "Underdiagnosis is common; in recent door-to-door studies, up to 24% of cases were newly detected at the time of the survey." The authors report that "neurodegenerative diseases are projected to surpass cancer as the second most common cause of death among the elderly by the year 2040." Jacqueline Winterkorn, PhD, MD