According to two surveys conducted in 2022 by the France Parkinson association and Opinionway, French people’s knowledge of Parkinson’s disease is often false.
–
Parkinson’s is not a rare disease
Thus, only 16% of French people really know its prevalence. More than 8 out of 10 respondents consider Parkinson’s disease to be a rare disease. They don’t know it’s the second neurodegenerative disease largest in the world after Alzheimer’s. In France, 1 in 250 adults is affected by this disease. It is the second cause of physical disability after strokes.
–
It is also the fastest growing disease in the world. “The number of patients in the world more than doubled between 1990 and 2015, rising from 2.6 to 6.3 million”, specifies France Parkinson.
–
If 74% of respondents know that it is a Incurable diseasethey are still too many to misrecognize its symptoms.
–
The disease is not just about tremors
For a large majority of French people (78%), the disease is characterized by involuntary tremors in the hands, head or legs. However, this symptom only affects nearly a third of sick people. And two more motor signs yet the most characteristic of the disease are themselves often ignored. It is :
–
slowness of movement (cited only by 35% of those questioned, whereas this sign is present in 90% of patients);
–
muscle and joint stiffness (only cited by 25% of respondents).
–
Among the other symptoms:
–
- Dlanguage disorders (monotone, jerky voice);
- Difficulty writing (the letters are lowercase);
- The face is often frozen, the mouth ajar and the blinking of the eyes reduced;
- Intense pain, extreme fatigue or trouble sleeping;
- Difficulty in performing daily activities.
–
Other symptoms may arise following the diagnosis such as anxiety, depression… medical care is therefore essential for patients suffering from this disease who very often observe a Autonomy loss in their daily life.
–
For France Parkinson, the stakes are still numerous because very often a diagnostic wandering is observed. Indeed, the delay in obtaining the diagnosis is still too long, it can sometimes take a year before obtaining treatment. Nearly 47% of people with this disease say they have trouble getting an appointment with a doctor. neurologist or not having been referred to a neurologist by their general practitioner.
–
« The preclinical phase of the disease, before the appearance of the first symptoms, generally lasts several years. During this period, the brain compensates for the drop in dopamine through plasticity processes, allowing normal brain function. Patients remain asymptomatic until 50-70% of dopamine neurons are destroyed and the brain is no longer able to compensate. explains Doctor Christine Brefel-Courbon, neurologist and vice-president of the France Parkinson association.
–
Where are we in research and treatments for Parkinson’s disease?
Although it is an incurable disease, the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease can be controlled with treatment.
–
the dopamine level being insufficient for the people affected, the drugs then compensate for this deficiency. Therefore, the taking of medication must be very regulated, and the frequency as well as the dosage must be followed very closely so as to act as best as possible on the symptoms.
–
While 61% of respondents identified the uncontrolled gestures (dyskinesias) as one of the main symptoms of Parkinson’s disease it is actually a consequence of dopaminergic treatment administered to patients. As the dopamine receptors are overstressed, the brain sometimes fails to integrate them correctly, sometimes resulting in uncontrolled movements (Source 1).
–
However, and since April 2022, a Lille start-up has developed a treatment that could improve the daily life of patients and limit certain Side effects. In partnership with the University Hospital of Lille, InBrainPharma has conducted clinical trials on four patients whose results seem more than satisfactory. By administering dopamine directly into the brain by catheter, the latter observed perfect control of the symptoms of the disease for 80% of their day.
–
If the treatment is still at the clinical trial stage, the results promoted by Professor Devos give hope for a new future for people with the disease.
–
« Usually, we don’t communicate so quickly, but the impact on the symptoms of the disease is so important. With a treatment dose of 200 mg/24h, patients achieve perfect control of their symptoms he explains.
—
