Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease (PD; paralysis agitans) is a neurodegenerative disease of the substantia nigra (an area in the basal ganglia of the brain). The disease was first discovered and its symptoms documented in 1817 (An Essay on the Shaking Palsy) by the British physician Dr. James Parkinson; the associated biochemical changes in the brain of patients were identified in the 1960s. Some genes were identified only recently; others remain unknown.

Notable Parkinson's sufferers

One famous sufferer of young-onset Parkinson's is Michael J. Fox, who has written a book about his experience of the disease. The film Awakenings (starring Robin Williams and Robert de Niro and based on genuine cases reported by Oliver Sacks) deals sensitively and largely accurately with a similar disease, postencephalitic parkinsonism; the state of the art in treatment remains roughly the same as it was at the time of the events depicted, the 1960s, although patients with postencephalitic parkinsonism lose benefit from their medication far faster than do patients with Parkinson's disease.

Related Topics:
Michael J. Fox - Awakenings - Robin Williams - Robert de Niro - Oliver Sacks - Postencephalitic parkinsonism - 1960s

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Other famous people, past and present, with Parkinson's include:

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• Brockman Adams
• Muhammad Ali (suffers from Pugilistic Parkinson's syndrome)
• Jim Backus, American actor (1913-1989)
• Margaret Bourke-White
• Jack Buck, sportscaster (1924-2002)
• Salvador Dalí
• Basil D'Oliveira, cricketer
• James Doohan
• US Representative Lane Evans (D - IL)
• Michael J. Fox (1961-)
• Francisco Franco Spanish dictator (1892-1975)
• Estelle Getty, actress (1923-)
• Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)
• Pope John Paul II (1920-2005)
• Ray Kennedy
• Jimmy Knepper, jazz trombonist (1927-2003)
• Alois Mock, former Austrian foreign minister
• Mervyn Peake
• Vincent Price, American Actor, also suffered from Lung Cancer
• Hans Ras
• Janet Reno
• Pierre Elliott Trudeau
• Farnsworth Wright
• Mao Zedong (1893-1976)
• Enoch Powell Controversial politician (1912-1998)
• Edward Winter, actor (1937-2001)
• Michael Kinsley