Posted by noa on March 5, 2003, at 16:52:43
In reply to Re: Dopamine agonists » Michael Bell, posted by not exactly on March 5, 2003, at 13:44:19
The second site you linked is very interesting! I like the way the info is organized, too.
But when I read the first link, I was somewhat skeptical of a Parkinsons personality, because there, it is described as:
"...appear to be highly intelligent, successful, responsible, conscientious, hard-working, less likely to smoke or drink, law abiding individuals."
Obviously, this is too broad to be useful. And,possibly spurious. One could easily imagine several ways that one could get the impression that patients diagnosed with Parkinsons have these traits vs. their opposites: some possibilities, imho: poor people get less discerning health care and therefore are diagnosed way less, or diagnosed with alternative illnesses thought to be more prevalent in the poor; more economically successful people tend to live longer and are able to function in their jobs longer becuase jobs tend to be white collar, not physical labor; stress and strains and injuries from long years of labor could be mistaken for the causes of some Parkinsons symptoms, or of earlier aging, which can seem to mask P. symptoms; Drug and alcohol use can mask P. symtpoms, or get in the way of access to good health care, or prejudice health care professionals from diagnosing properly, etc. etc. etc.
The second link talks more about compulsive tendencies. I will have to go back and look at the research they based this on, but that sounds more promising to me than the above characteristics.
I sometimes think about Parkinsons. My grandmother essentially died of it. It was not diagnosed that readily. In fact, my dad and his siblings actually suspected my grandfather of abusing her becuase she had been falling a lot and getting bruised. He had developed a drinking problem in later years to self-medicate his depression. But abuse did not fit his m.o., in that he tended to be a quiet, withdrawn drunk, very depressed, and had more of a tendency to wander aimlessly than to have any kind of angry outbursts. After a while, they realized that my GM was falling because of something neurological and then she saw a specialist who diagnosed her. This was back in the 60's.
I don't even have a clue if P. is hereditary, but of course, I think about it from time to time.
poster:noa
thread:205134
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030301/msgs/206214.html