Cross sectional prevalence survey of idiopathic Parkinson's disease and parkinsonism in London
BMJ 2000; 321 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.321.7252.21 (Published 01 July 2000) Cite this as: BMJ 2000;321:21
- A Schrag (Y.Ben-Shlomo@bristol.ac.uk), research fellowa,
- Y Ben-Shlomo, senior lecturer in clinical epidemiologyb,
- N P Quinn, professora
- a Department of Clinical Neurology, Institute of Neurology, London WC1N 3BG,
- b Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 2PR
- Correspondence to: Y Ben-Shlomo
- Accepted 5 April 2000
Only four prevalence studies of idiopathic Parkinson's disease in the United Kingdom have been published to date. These have been undertaken in the north of England or Scotland and span 30 years.1–4 We report the prevalence of idiopathic Parkinson's disease and other parkinsonian syndromes in 1997 in the London area.
Subjects, methods, and results
Full details of the methods have been reported elsewhere.5 Records from 15 practices in London (121 608 patients) were screened for a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease or parkinsonism; antiparkinsonian drugs; or mention of tremor after the age of 50 years. Diagnosis was based on clinical assessment (by AS), with a video recording for secondary confirmation (by NPQ). Idiopathic Parkinson's disease was diagnosed according to the criteria of the UK Parkinson's Disease Society Brain Bank,w1 with the exception that an isolated positive Babinski sign in an elderly patient with otherwise typical idiopathic Parkinson's disease was not considered to invalidate the diagnosis. …