Early days of the Queen Square brain bank; rating dopaminergic replacement therapy response

The Queen Square brain bank was set up by Andrew Lees, and whilst there he co-authored two of JNNP’s most highly cited papers – one on the importance of Lewy bodies in Parkinson’s, and the other on the accuracy of clinical diagnosis of the disease. Now director of the Reta Lila Weston Institute of Neurological studies, University College London, he discusses the changing relationship between pathologists and clinicians, and the progress he’s seen in diagnosis.

Assessing response to dopamine replacement therapy is essential for diagnosing idiopathic Parkinson’s disease, and for adjusting dose. One measure is to ask the patient how they feel, others are more objective such as the UPDRS or timed tests. However a paper in this month’s issue shows they are not always correlated. First author David McGhee (clinical research fellow in the division of Applied Health Sciences, University of Aberdeen) talks about the findings.

And, movement disorders: where are we now? This month’s journal focuses on these conditions, so JNNP editor Matthew Kiernan and associate editors Nick Ward and Alan Carson debate the most important advances.

See also:

October’s JNNP: Movement disorder special http://tinyurl.com/a32m868

Movement disorders: what lies beneath? http://tinyurl.com/a32m868

A MODERN PERSPECTIVE ON THE TOP 100 CITED JNNP PAPERS OF ALL TIME: The relevance of the Lewy Body to the pathogenesis of idiopathic Parkinson’s disease: Accuracy of clinical diagnosis of idiopathic Parkinson’s disease http://tinyurl.com/as9dq32

Comparison of patient rated treatment response with measured improvement in Parkinson’s disease http://tinyurl.com/bj57hu2