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Health Dictionary

Reliable, easy-to-read patient information on common medical conditions — written in plain language, free of jargon, and grounded in current evidence. Browse the most frequent diagnoses, understand what they mean for everyday life, and learn which steps and questions help you have a focused conversation with your doctor.

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Parkinson's disease historical perspective

Introduction

Overview

Overview

Parkinson disease was first documented and recognized by a British physician, James Parkinson in 1817 who named it paralysis agitans. The first underlying pathology of Parkinson disease was described by a German pathologist Frederick Lewy in 1912. He described that there are cytoplasmic inclusions in some brain areas of PD patients. in 1967 the drug “L-dopa” was introduced to the market as a treatment of Parkinson ’s disease.

Historical Perspective

Historical Perspective

Discovery

  • Parkinson disease was first documented and recognized by a British physician, James Parkinson in 1817 who named it paralysis agitans.[1]
  • The current name of the disease (Parkinson disease) is from Jean-Martin Charcot.[2]
  • The first underlying pathology of Parkinson disease was described by a German pathologist Frederick Lewy in 1912. He described that there are cytoplasmic inclusions in some brain areas of PD patients.[1]
  • Later on in 1919 Tretiakoff showed that in this patients’ substantia nigra there are evidences of neuronal loss.
  • Finally in the 1950s dopamine depletion was known to be the underlying cause of the disease.[3]
  • Later, in 1967 the drug “L-dopa” was introduced to the market as a treatment of Parkinson ’s disease.[4][5][6]

Landmark Events in the Development of Treatment Strategies

References

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Goetz, C. G. (2011). “The History of Parkinson’s Disease: Early Clinical Descriptions and Neurological Therapies”. Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine. 1 (1): a008862–a008862. doi:10.1101/cshperspect.a008862. ISSN 2157-1422.
  2. ↑ Teive, Helio A. G.; Munhoz, Renato Puppi; Barbosa, Egberto Reis (2007). “Little-known scientific contributions of J-M Charcot”. Clinics. 62 (3): 211–214. doi:10.1590/S1807-59322007000300003. ISSN 1807-5932.
  3. ↑ Hornykiewicz O (2006). “The discovery of dopamine deficiency in the parkinsonian brain”. J. Neural Transm. Suppl. (70): 9–15. PMID 17017502.
  4. ↑ Manyam BV, Sánchez-Ramos JR (1999). “Traditional and complementary therapies in Parkinson’s disease”. Adv Neurol. 80: 565–74. PMID 10410773.
  5. ↑ Parkinson J (2002). “An essay on the shaking palsy. 1817”. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 14 (2): 223–36, discussion 222. doi:10.1176/jnp.14.2.223. PMID 11983801.
  6. ↑ Hornykiewicz O (2002). “L-DOPA: from a biologically inactive amino acid to a successful therapeutic agent”. Amino Acids. 23 (1–3): 65–70. doi:10.1007/s00726-001-0111-9. PMID 12373520.<ref name=”pmid5637779″>Cotzias GC (March 1968). “L-Dopa for Parkinsonism”. N. Engl. J. Med. 278 (11): 630. PMID 5637779.

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1] Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Fahimeh Shojaei, M.D.