News

This year, Parkinson Voice Project (PVP) is broadening its SPEAK OUT! & LOUD Crowd Grant Program to include support for international speech therapy clinics. The expanded grant program is intended to help Parkinson’s disease patients around the world gain access to quality speech treatment to maintain their speaking abilities and…

Toxic protein aggregates called Lewy bodies sequestrate a protein that is usually found in the cell nucleus and known to protect against neurodegeneration, and change in this protein’s location contributes to the mechanisms underlying Parkinson’s disease, researchers report. The study, “Loss of nuclear REST/NRSF in aged-dopaminergic neurons in…

Use of dopamine agonists, earlier disease onset, being male, and having personality traits such as impulsiveness and high novelty-seeking are among the risk factors for developing impulse control disorders (ICDs) in people with Parkinson’s, according to a review study. The research, “Impulse control disorders in Parkinson’s…

Genes that control a molecular pathway responsible for moving biological cargo into cells contribute to the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, researchers report. The study, “The Endocytic Membrane Trafficking Pathway Plays a Major Role in the Risk of Parkinson’s Disease,” was published in Movement Disorders. The movement of…

Dopaminergic treatment normalizes cognitive motivation in patients with Parkinson’s disease, making them more likely to choose a higher reward option in a computer-based task, a study reports. The study, “Dopamine restores cognitive motivation in Parkinson’s disease,” was published in the journal Brain. Approximately 40 percent…

Levodopa/carbidopa treatment is effective in managing Parkinson’s motor symptoms, but does not protect against disease progression among patients with early disease, a study shows. The research, “Randomized Delayed-Start Trial of Levodopa in Parkinson’s Disease” was published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Levodopa is the main…

A diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease is associated with greater Medicare costs and out-of-pocket spending, according to a population-based study in the U.S. These findings also revealed substantial geographic variation in prevalence and health service use and spending among Medicare beneficiaries. The study, “State-level prevalence, health service…

The ability to block out irrelevant information when asked to recognize and name objects, known as inhibitory processing, remains intact in patients with Parkinson’s disease, a study has found. The study, “The Suppression of Irrelevant Semantic Representations in Parkinson’s Disease,” was published in the journal Frontiers in Human…

A new way to understand and study how the brain represents tool embodiment — the physical actions for using tools — was proposed in a new research article. The study recommends methods for understanding Parkinson’s disease signs and symptoms relating to the brain’s ability to represent motor…

A shorter, simpler version of testing to diagnose mild cognitive impairment in Parkinson’s disease is just as effective as a lengthier evaluation at predicting the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease dementia, a report shows. The study, “Risk of Parkinson’s Disease Dementia Related to Level I MDS PD-MCI,”…