One in ten cases are diagnosed in people under 45 years of age.
In 1817, 200 years ago, the clinician James Parkinson described what he called agitating paralysis and which today is known as Parkinson’s, a disease suffered by between 120,000 and 150,000 people in Spain.
Every year, 10,000 new cases are diagnosed, of which 1,500 correspond to people between 30 and 50 years of age.
“It is true that this disease is associated with age, it is more frequent the older we are. Even so, there are some genetic alterations that cause the disease to manifest itself in this group. We all have a patient of this age,” says Javier Pagonabarraga, coordinator of the Movement Disorders Study Group of the Spanish Society of Neurology.
Isabel del Corral is one of these young patients. Today she is 50 years old, but she was diagnosed with this neurodegenerative disease at 42 . “In August 2008 I started to feel stiff tendons in my right hand, even when I was relaxed, outside of work. I also began to notice that I was walking badly with my right foot.” The doctor didn’t give it any importance: “It will be a matter of mouse use, stress,” he told her. However, she knew something wasn’t right. In January of the following year he came with a clear idea: “I know something is wrong with me”. That’s how they sent him to a specialist and just a few months later he already had his diagnosis: he had Parkinson’s. Although she had already dived into the Internet, the doctor’s words fell like a bucket of cold water on her. “I left the hospital quickly. I couldn’t breathe,” but he managed to calm down and the first thing he did when he got home was look for a partnership. In his case it was Parkinson Madrid.” I’ve always known that no matter what, I had to move forward.” After those first symptoms, Isabel has lived without experiencing the progression of the disease until just a year ago. “I feel slower and slower. I am an administrator and in the afternoon I begin to notice how my hands are seized. Stress affects me more “, he acknowledges.
The symptoms that Isabel suffers from are the most frequent, despite what the majority of the population believes. The most common clinical manifestation of Parkinson’s disease is difficulty initiating and performing voluntary movements.
However, a patient can develop, between 5 and 10 years before the onset of motor symptoms, many disorders not related to motor skills,” explains Pagonabarraga.
“In a large number of patients, depression can be the first manifestation of Parkinson’s, but it can also manifest itself with memory problems, loss of smell, constipation, urinary disorders, sexual dysfunction, sleep disorders, etc.”
Many of these indicators are not related to neurodegenerative disease, which is why diagnoses are delayed. “Hallucinations and mood changes are also key to diagnosing it.”
From the Spanish Parkinson’s Federation, Alicia Campos, its president, insists on the importance of creating a reference center for this disease. “There is a very wide range of people who may be affected by this disease. From 80,000 to 200,000. That is why we believe it is very important that this center be created, to carry out a true epidemiological study,” he says. The Federation also insists on the need to promote research to improve both diagnosis and new treatments. In this sense, as Pagonabarraga explains, “for the first time in history, in the last two years a very promising drug is being developed in Austria and the United States. It is already in phase II clinical research and monoclonal antibodies are capable of cleaning up affected neurons. If this episode works, the next step will be to recruit large hospitals and surely some Spanish,” he adds.
Source: La Razón
