After my positive blog-post on uric acid a while ago, we have another reminder that unfortunately in research things are often not so simple, especially when moving from observational findings to affecting real-world changes. We are ending the year with another negative trial in Parkinson's - it's recently been announced that the trial of urate-elevating drug Inosine is ending early as the investigators don't believe that the trial will achieve it's stated goal of slowing progression of Parkinson's. Alastair's paper on the causal relationship between urate levels and Parkinson's https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30014513 gave us a hint that uric acid, while associated with reduced risk, may not be directly causing this - so it's still important to understand more about these relationships and it will be instructive to read about the data that has been collected when this is published next year.
Talking of real-world impact, this interesting paper below explored the very real impact of early symptoms of Parkinson's disease on the workforce. At PREDICT-PD we are fascinated by what happens in the years before diagnosis of Parkinson's - a lot has been published on non-motor symptoms such as constipation, depression and sleep disorders - but not much on how this affects specific activities such as work. They looked at patients with Parkinson's who had to take sick leave and compared them to people who had taken sick leave for other reasons. Those with Parkinson's sick leave were more likely in the preceeding 5 years to have taken sick leave for reasons other than Parkinson's and more likely to have taken sick leave for musculoskeletal issues in particular. Given that the study was only able to look at sick-leave episodes exceeding 14 days, it illustrates the significant impact that these symptoms are having on patients in the early disease and even before diagnosis.
On a more positive note as we look towards the end of the year and Christmas, we are very pleased that recruitment is ramping up for the next stage of the PREDICT-PD project. We are working towards new publications of our own data in the coming months and we'd like to thank all for their ongoing support. If you or any family members are interested, please do have a look on www.predictpd.com.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41531-018-0072-2
Wishing you all the best over the festive season.
-anna
Talking of real-world impact, this interesting paper below explored the very real impact of early symptoms of Parkinson's disease on the workforce. At PREDICT-PD we are fascinated by what happens in the years before diagnosis of Parkinson's - a lot has been published on non-motor symptoms such as constipation, depression and sleep disorders - but not much on how this affects specific activities such as work. They looked at patients with Parkinson's who had to take sick leave and compared them to people who had taken sick leave for other reasons. Those with Parkinson's sick leave were more likely in the preceeding 5 years to have taken sick leave for reasons other than Parkinson's and more likely to have taken sick leave for musculoskeletal issues in particular. Given that the study was only able to look at sick-leave episodes exceeding 14 days, it illustrates the significant impact that these symptoms are having on patients in the early disease and even before diagnosis.
On a more positive note as we look towards the end of the year and Christmas, we are very pleased that recruitment is ramping up for the next stage of the PREDICT-PD project. We are working towards new publications of our own data in the coming months and we'd like to thank all for their ongoing support. If you or any family members are interested, please do have a look on www.predictpd.com.
Reduced workforce participation 5 years prior to first Parkinson’s disease sick-leave
Jonathan Timpka, Örjan Dahlström, Armin Spreco, Maria H. Nilsson, Susanne Iwarsson, Toomas Timpka & Per Odinhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41531-018-0072-2
Wishing you all the best over the festive season.
-anna
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