Parkinson's disease historical perspective
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Overview
Historical Perspective
Symptoms of Parkinson's disease have been known and treated since ancient times.[1]
However, it was not formally recognized and its symptoms were not documented until 1817 in An Essay on the Shaking Palsy[2] by the British physician James Parkinson. Parkinson's disease was then known as paralysis agitans, the term "Parkinson's disease" being coined later by Jean-Martin Charcot. The underlying biochemical changes in the brain were identified in the 1950s due largely to the work of Swedish scientist Arvid Carlsson, who later went on to win a Nobel Prize. L-dopa entered clinical practice in 1967,[3] and the first study reporting improvements in patients with Parkinson's disease resulting from treatment with L-dopa was published in 1968.[4]
One famous sufferer of young-onset Parkinson's is Michael J. Fox, whose book, Lucky Man (2000), focused on his experiences with the disease and his career and family travails in the midst of it. Fox established The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research to develop a cure for Parkinson's disease within this decade.
Other famous sufferers include Pope John Paul II, playwright Eugene O'Neill, artist Salvador Dalí, evangelist Billy Graham, former US Attorney General Janet Reno, and boxer Muhammad Ali. Political figures suffering from it have included Adolf Hitler, Francisco Franco, Deng Xiaoping and Mao Zedong, and former Prime Minister of Canada Pierre Trudeau. Numerous actors have also been afflicted with Parkinson's such as: Terry-Thomas, Deborah Kerr, Kenneth More, Vincent Price, Jim Backus and Michael Redgrave. Helen Beardsley (of Yours, Mine and Ours fame) also suffered from this disease toward the end of her life. Director George Roy Hill (The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) also suffered from Parkinson's disease.
The film Awakenings (starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro and based on genuine cases reported by Oliver Sacks) deals sensitively and largely accurately with a similar disease, postencephalitic parkinsonism
References
- ↑ Manyam BV, Sánchez-Ramos JR (1999). "Traditional and complementary therapies in Parkinson's disease". Advances in neurology. 80: 565–74. PMID 10410773.
- ↑ Parkinson J (2002). "An essay on the shaking palsy. 1817" (Reproduced\). J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 14 (2): 223–36, discussion 222. PMID 11983801.
- ↑ Hornykiewicz O (2002). "L-DOPA: from a biologically inactive amino acid to a successful therapeutic agent". Amino Acids. 23 (1–3): 65–70. doi:10.1007/s00726-001-0111-9. PMID 12373520.
- ↑ Cotzias, G. (1968). "L-Dopa for Parkinsonism". N Engl J Med. 278 (11): 630. PMID 5637779.