Prodromal Parkinson disease: do we miss the signs?

[Farooqji]

nature.com/articles/s41582-...

[park_bear]

"Patients present to general practitioners with a variety of symptoms that eventually turn out to be caused by early Parkinson disease. Now, methods to calculate Parkinson disease risk in general practitioner settings are becoming available."

This is all well and good, however, someone needs to alert general practitioners that they need to be aware of Parkinson's symptoms. I brought my shaking arm with one-sided resting tremor to 2 different general practitioners and they had no idea what it was.

[ddmagee1 in reply to park_bear]

Yeah, I went to several GP's in the small town I lived in, after I was having PD symptoms. I didn't know anything about PD, or it's symptoms. I showed tremors and rigidity in my hands and arms, and stiffness in legs, where I dragged one leg, a little, when I walked. I had several bad falls, because of freezing episodes, and losing balance. The GP's never said a word about Parkinson's to me, and dismissed my symptoms, I guess, because of my age. It wasn't until my daughter got sick & tired of the Docs. not helping me, and she moved me to the City, where there is a regional hospital. and within a month, I was diagnosed by two Docs, one of whom was a neurologist. This was after at least 6 years, of me living with undiagnosed PD symptoms! That's why patients have to advocate for themselves.