Patients may begin experiencing a broad range of symptoms — including hearing loss and epilepsy — up to 10 years before a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis, according to a new study.
Investigators examined health records of 1,055 diverse and socioeconomically deprived patients with Parkinson’s in the United Kingdom. Compared to a control group, known early symptoms such as tremor and memory problems appeared up to 10 and five years, respectively, before these patients were diagnosed.
The researchers also found that hearing loss and epilepsy may precede a diagnosis by many years, and were able to confirm these new findings against additional data from the UK Biobank.
The study was unique in that previous UK research has focused on wealthier, white populations, investigators said. The new study did not find an association with future diagnosis and ethnicity or deprivation index level, they reported.
Early Parkinson’s diagnosis key
The lag time between recognizing these early signs in primary care settings and a patient’s diagnosis is unacceptable, they said. Providers need to respond to the initial symptoms faster.
“It’s important that primary care practitioners are aware of these links and understand how early the symptoms of Parkinson’s can appear, so that patients can get a timely diagnosis and doctors can act early to help manage the condition,” said Dr. Cristina Simonet, neurologist and Ph.D. student at Queen Mary University of London.
“Tremor, for example, is one of the most recognizable symptoms of Parkinson’s — but was seen 10 years before eventual diagnosis in our study,” added Alastair J. Noyce, Ph.D., also of Queen Mary University of London. “This is too long for patients to wait. If we’re able to diagnose Parkinson’s earlier, we have a real opportunity to intervene early and offer treatments that could improve quality of life for patients.”
The study was published in JAMA Neurology.
