Chicago among sites for foremost study on Parkinson's disease

About 1 million American people have Parkinson's disease, a progressive disorder of the central nervous system. There are treatments that can temporarily improve the symptoms, but there is not a cure. Now, a five-year study is being kick off at 18 research sites around the world, including one in Chicago, to speed up the growth of treatments to slow or stop the progression of this disease. The Parkinson's Progression Markers scheme, a study funded with $40 million from the Michael J. Fox Foundation, will be enrolling 400 recently diagnosed patients with Parkinson's and 200 people who do not have the disease.

Northwestern Medicine's Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Center in Chicago hope to enroll 20 people to contribute for two years, according to the foundation. Northwestern are one of 14 research sites in the U.S., and the only one in the Midwest contribute in the study. Researchers will be seemed for the biomarkers for Parkinson's disease. "Parkinson's is a disease without a clear-cut diagnosis and without a cure," Dr. Tanya Simuni, principal examiner for the study at Northwestern and director of the Parkinson's Disease and group Disorders Center, said in a news release. "While significant strides have been made in the growth of drugs to manage the disease, hope for the prospect lies in the development of new drugs to slow or stop the progression of Parkinson's."

The four main symptoms of Parkinson's are tremor or trembling in the hands, arms, legs, jaw and face, stiffness of the limbs and trunk, slowness of group and impaired balance and coordination, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Over time, people with Parkinson's have trouble walking, talking and responsibility simple tasks. Parkinson's typically influence people over age 50. Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson's 19 years ago.

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Narcolepsy

Narcolepsy is a chronic sleep disorder, or dyssomnia, characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in which a person experiences severe fatigue and possibly falls asleep at inappropriate times, such as while at work or at school. Narcoleptics usually experience troubled nocturnal sleep and an abnormal daytime sleep pattern, which is often confused with insomnia. When a narcoleptic falls asleep they usually experience the REM stage of sleep within 10 minutes; whereas most people do not experience REM sleep until after 90 minutes. There is no proof to propose that narcoleptics tend to have a shorter life span.

Another problem that some narcoleptics knowledge is cataplexy, a sudden muscular weakness brought on by strong emotions. It often manifests as muscular weaknesses ranging from a hardly perceptible slackening of the facial muscles to the reducing of the jaw or head, weakness at the knees, or a total collapse. Usually only speech is slurred, vision is impair, but hearing and awareness remainder normal. In some extraordinary cases, an individual's body becomes paralyzed and muscles become stiff. Narcolepsy is an neurological sleep disorder. It is not reason by mental illness or psychological problems.

Narcolepsy is most likely artificial by a number of genetic abnormalities that affect specific biologic factors in the brain, combined with a set off from environment, such as a virus. Treatment is tailored to the personality, based on symptoms and therapeutic response. The time necessary to achieve optimal control of symptoms is highly variable, and may take several months or longer. Medication adjustments are also repeatedly necessary, and complete control of symptoms is seldom possible. While oral medications are the support of formal narcolepsy treatment, lifestyle changes are also important.

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