Parkinson’s disease has an insidious onset and is diagnosed when typical motor features occur. Several motor and non-motor features can occur before diagnosis, early in the disease process.
This study aimed to assess the association between first presentation of several prediagnostic features in primary care and a subsequent diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, and to chart the timeline of these first presentations before diagnosis.
8166 individuals with a first diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease and 46755 people without Parkinson’s disease were identified from The Health Improvement Network UK primary care database.
A range of prediagnostic features such as tremor, balance impairment, constipation, depression were detected by the study several years before diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease in primary care. These data can be incorporated into ongoing efforts to identify individuals at the earliest stages of the disease for inclusion in future trials and to help understand progression in the earliest phase of Parkinson’s disease.
Source: The Lancet