Often thought of as an older person’s age-related sickness, Parkinson’s disease can, in fact, strike the young as well. It is estimated that Parkinson’s disease affects about one percent of people over the age of 50 – although some studies bump this figure to one percent of people over the age of 65, and two percent over the age of 70.
When it comes to younger people, the Journal of Family Medicine suggests as many as five percent of Parkinson’s cases have been diagnosed in people under the age of 40.
“The average age of onset is 60 years of age, although 5% of patients are under age 40,” the Journal’s Matthew Stern has written. “The precise cause of Parkinson's disease is not yet clear, but the disease is linked to the degeneration of dopamine-producing cells in the substantia nigra, a pigmented region in the ventral midbrain. The disease may have a lengthy preclinical course, perhaps 30 years or more, before the appearance of symptoms. It has been estimated that up to 80 percent of dopaminergic neurons are lost before the cardinal signs and symptoms of Parkinson's disease first appear.”
There is no present cure of Parkinson’s disease, but treatments have advanced remarkably over the last decade, with medications available to better control symptoms, and research into other treatments, such as stem cell therapy, improving every year.
One of the keys to controlling Parkinson’s disease is early diagnosis, which can be especially difficult in younger people who think the disease can’t strike them and therefore aren’t aware of or looking for symptoms. Early diagnosis of Parkinson’s in older people can also be problematic as many of the early warning signs and symptoms are similar to those of other conditions, or do not appear particularly serious on their own.
Again, the Journal of Family Practice weighs in on the issue, and notes that many cases of Parkinson’s remain undiagnosed:
“Diagnosing Parkinson's disease, especially at an early stage, is challenging because the cardinal manifestations--resting and postural tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity, and postural instability--are not immediately distinguishable from a spectrum of syndromes and disease that make up a large and varied symptom complex now known as parkinsonism. Consequently, it is estimated that there are an additional 500,000 Americans who are in the early stages of Parkinson's disease but who are undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, and remain untreated.”
Many Parkinson’s patients do no realize early on that they have a significant problem, and sometimes their doctors do not diagnose them either, because the symptoms often appear gradually or are non-specific in nature. Small changes, such as mild changes in personality, slower writing ability, muscled pain, fatigue, or slight feelings of depression can all be signs of Parkinson’s that develop over a long period without being alarming, or even particularly noticeable. Even if such changes are noticed, they are often attributed to getting older and simply ignored.
With treatments improving, especially in cases of early diagnosis, Parkinson’s does not have to be completely debilitating. With increased education and awareness of the symptoms of Parkinson’s, perhaps the disease could be diagnosed and treated earlier, vastly improving the quality of life for people who have the disease.