Parkinson’s disease is a motor-system disorder that usually affects one
side of the body more than the other. Earlier research found that
Parkinson's disease symptoms are overwhelmingly asymmetric (i.e. affects
one side more than the other) in the sporadic cases they studied. The
researchers were surprise that 90% of the genetic cases have asymmetric
symptoms as well.
According to Dr. Ryan Uitti, a Mayo Clinic neurologist and lead
investigator, “I really thought their Parkinson's disease symptoms would
be pretty much the same on both sides of the body. If there's a genetic
cause for a neurological problem, given the fact that genes are in every
cell, in both the right side of the brain and the left side, why would
there be differences in symptoms between the two sides of the body?"
The asymmetric symptoms may have something to do with the “handedness”
of the patient. "This is an area that's completely open to speculation,"
Uitti says. "One thought is that this is completely hard-wired. Just
like one side of the brain controls language in most people, one side of
the brain creates handedness, and maybe that circuit is more vulnerable
to the causes of Parkinson's disease." It may be possible that overuse
of a motor circuit, similar to what occurs with writer's cramp, leads to
damaging the circuit and predisposing symptoms to develop on one's
predominant side.
Researchers studied 40 patients from two large family kindreds with a
known genetic cause of Parkinson's disease and 1277 patients diagnosed
with sporadic Parkinson's disease. This series of sporadic cases, which
Uitti diagnosed between July 1, 1994 and June 30, 2004, is the largest
reported patient series. There are relatively few people whose
genetically-caused disease resembles the disease seen in sporadic cases,
but researchers say further studies involving more of these individuals
is needed to assess their current findings and to discover mechanisms
responsible for these common characteristics.
Although there is no cure for Parkinson’s there are treatments that may
help relieve the symptoms. Your doctor should evaluate your symptoms
before prescribing a treatment. Most of the drugs used for treatment
mimic the effects of dopamine, increase dopamine levels, or extend the
action of dopamine in the brain. So far the treatments have not been
effective in stopping the progression of the disease. The research is
published in the April, 2006 edition of Archives of Neurology.
The research is published in the April, 2006 edition of Archives of
Neurology.
By Dan Wilson
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