JPD Blog

4 January 2016

Use of Anticholinergic Drugs Does Not Increase Risk for Dementia in Parkinson’s Disease Patients

Recent evidence has shown a greater risk of dementia, in particular Alzheimer’s disease (AD), in individuals using anticholinergic medications regularly. These drugs are widely used by older adults to treat bladder dysfunction, mood, and pain, and many of them are available without prescription. Since these drugs are often used to treat both motor symptoms and non-motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD), there is concern for increased risk of dementia. Contrary to expectations, a study in the current issue of the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease determined that the cognitive performance of PD patients taking anticholinergic medications did not differ from those who did not.

Focused Ultrasound

Before the advent of deep brain stimulation (DBS) some fifteen to twenty years ago, the only way neurosurgeons could mitigate Parkinsonian symptoms like tremor, rigidity, and dyskinesia, was by directly destroying pieces of brain regions such as the thalamus and globus pallidus internus.

10 November 2015

Gaucher Disease May Protect Against Parkinson’s Disease-Related Color Visual Impairment

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) patients have a five-fold greater risk of carrying genetic mutations in the β-glucocerebrosidase gene (GBA), which are commonly associated with Gaucher disease (GD). Patients with both PD and GD tend to experience earlier onset of PD and more serious cognitive changes than PD patients without the mutations. A new study published in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease suggests that GD or the presence of GBA mutations may actually shield patients from deficiency in visual color discrimination, which is a hallmark of PD.

21 October 2015

Jon Palfreman's new book: Brain Storms: The Race to Unlock the Mysteries of Parkinson’s Disease

The Journal of Parkinson’s Disease is proud to announce the publication of Media Editor Jon Palfreman’s newest book: “Brain Storms: The Race to Unlock the Mysteries of Parkinson’s Disease”, a long-overdue, riveting detective story of the race to stop or reverse neurodegenerative conditions like Parkinson's disease, and a passionate, insightful account into the lives of those affected.

The Clinical Evaluation of Parkinson’s Tremor

Tremor in Parkinson's disease can come in many different forms, and it has a highly variable appearance. This stimulated us to summarize a few crucial points as well as helpful tips and tricks for a good tremor evaluation.

How I Examine My Patient: The Art of Neurological Examination for Parkinson’s Disease

The Journal of Parkinson’s Disease is proud to announce an exciting new section entitled “How I Examine My Patient”, dedicated to the art of the neurological examination.

Last comment on by Patti Miller,

Medio-Lateral Balance Impairment Differentiates between Parkinson’s Disease and Atypical Parkinsonism

In early disease stages, it can be difficult to differentiate clinically between Parkinson’s disease and the various forms of atypical parkinsonism, like multiple system atrophy or progressive supranuclear palsy. Balance impairment in the medio-lateral plane (i.e. sideways) is often seen in patients with a form of atypical parkinsonism, but not in patients with Parkinson’s disease.
This is reflected by the distance between the feet during gait, which is typically normal (or even narrow) in Parkinson’s disease, but widened in atypical parkinsonism. Estimating this stance width depends on subjective judgement, and is difficult to quantify in clinical practice.

Last comment on by Patti Manners,

The Retropulsion Test: A Good Evaluation of Postural Instability in Parkinson’s Disease?

Postural instability is a disabling feature of Parkinson’s disease (PD), contributing to recurrent falls and fall-related injuries. The retropulsion test is widely regarded as the gold standard to evaluate postural instability, and is therefore a key component of the neurological examination in PD.

Last comment on by Patti Miller,

Policy on Ethics

The Journal of Parkinson’s Disease affirms that misconduct, in the form of fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism, jeopardizes the success of the entire scientific endeavor. However, the primary responsibility for considering and resolving allegations of scientific misconduct must be pursued within the individual academic communities and institutions where the scientific work is carried out. Every author of articles or abstracts submitted for publication assumes full responsibility, within the limits of his or her professional competence, for the accuracy of the report. In the case of multiple-authored papers, each author should have made a significant intellectual or practical contribution to the scientific work. Authors submit articles with the understanding that reports must not have been submitted elsewhere.

Questions raised about the conduct of experiments or their presentation will be evaluated preliminarily by the Editor-in-Chief and, if appropriate, in consultation with the Associate Editor handling the review of the manuscript. If deemed appropriate, the matter will be referred to the institution where the scientific work in question was performed. The Journal expects that the matter would be reviewed in accordance with institutional procedures for handling allegations of misconduct. At all stages, every effort should be made to ensure that the process is fair and just, both for those who are accused of misconduct and for those who have raised the issue of scientific misconduct.

In the event that a published article or abstract is to be retracted, a statement of retraction will be published in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease.

Policies

Submission of an article is understood to imply that the article is original and unpublished and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. Any possible conflict of interest, financial or otherwise, related to the submitted work must be clearly indicated in the manuscript. Procedures involving experiments on human subjects should be in accord with the ethical standards of the Committee on Human Experimentation of the institution in which the experiments were done or in accord with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975. Procedures involving experimentation on animal subjects should be in accord with either the guide of the institution in which the experiments were done, or with the National Research Council’s guide for the care and use of laboratory animals.

Policy on Animal Use

The Journal of Parkinson’s Disease supports the appropriate and responsible use of animals as experimental subjects.

The U.S. Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (PHS Policy) and the National Institutes of Health Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (NIH Guide) should guide all animal research. Compliance with these guidelines as well as protocol approval by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee should be specified in the text of the manuscript.

We recommend following the ARRIVE reporting guidelines when documenting animal studies (PLoS Bio 8(6), e1000412, 2010).

Policy on Use of Human Subjects

Experiments involving human subjects must conform with the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects (United States Office of Science and Technology Policy) and in the Declaration of Helsinki and be approved by a local Institutional Review Board. Approval by the latter must be indicated in the text.

  • Declaration of Helsinki. (Adopted in 1964 by the 18th World Medical Assembly in Helsinki, Finland, and revised by the 29th World Medical Assembly in Tokyo in 1975.) In: The Main Issue in Bioethics Revised Edition. Andrew C. Varga, ed. New York: Paulist Press, 1984.
  • Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects; Notices and Rules. Federal Register. Vol. 56. No. 117 (June 18, 1991), pp 28002-28007.
  • Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) Human Subject Protections (http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/)
 

Open Access Mandates

A growing number of funding agencies now require that research articles they have funded must be made open access. This may be either by mandating deposit in repositories after an embargo period or by stipulating that research is published as open access.

Publishing in JPD complies with all major funding agency requirements.

From 2023 JPD is an Open Access Journal

From 2023 onwards JPD will be an open access journal, allowing authors the choice of two copyright licences: CC-BY-NC and CC-BY, thereby complying with all major funding mandates (you can read more about the copyright licenses here: https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/). All papers published from 2023 onwards will be published in the gold open access model. All articles published as open access in JPD are automatically submitted to Pubmed Central by the publisher (there is a delay of 4-6 weeks after publication before articles are visible in Pubmed Central). The pre-2023 volume will remain as it is (part paywall, part open access)

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Gold Open Access Publishing in JPD

Gold open access helps authors to comply with major funder mandates. Gold open access makes the article publicly available in the journal’s contents immediately upon publication. The publisher will also deposit the final, published version of the open access article into PubMed Central upon final publication. All open access articles are published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License 4.0.

The author will have the option to select the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) copyright license for a surcharge. This license is required by certain funding agencies such as the Research Councils UK (RCUK) and Wellcome Trust.

Green Open Access Publishing in JPD for articles published pre-2023 (Self-Archiving)

Authors whose papers were published in the pre-2023 volume, who did not select open access publication, may self-archive and post the final manuscript version on their own institution, company or funding agency repositories without delay. Authors that are funded by the NIH, Research Councils UK (RCUK) and Wellcome Trust are welcome to deposit their final manuscript version to PubMed Central (Submission Method C) and Europe PubMed Central without delay. In all cases a publication reference and URL to the journal’s website must be provided on the first page of the manuscript.

Pre-Prints

JPD has no issue with authors submitting their article to a pre-print service such as BioRxiv or MedRxiv before acceptance in the journal. When submitting, do add a note clarifying that your article is available as a pre-print or in process of becoming a pre-print.

Copyright and Permissions

Copyright of your article
Authors submitting a manuscript do so on the understanding that they have read and agreed to the terms of the IOS Press Author Copyright Agreement.

Quoting from other publications
An author, when quoting from someone else's work or when considering reproducing figures or table from a book or journal article, should make sure that he is not infringing a copyright. Although in general an author may quote from other published works, he should obtain permission from the holder of the copyright if he wishes to make substantial extracts or to reproduce tables, plates or other figures. If the copyright holder is not the author of the quoted or reproduced material, it is recommended that the permission of the author should also be sought. Material in unpublished letters and manuscripts is also protected and must not be published unless permission has been obtained. Submission of a paper will be interpreted as a statement that the author has obtained all the necessary permission. A suitable acknowledgement of any borrowed material must always be made.

Permission to use content published in the Journal of Parkinson's Disease can be requested by messaging publisher@iospress.nl.

Pre-Prints
JPD has no issue with authors submitting their article to a pre-print service such as BioRxiv or MedRxiv before acceptance in the journal. When submitting, do add a note clarifying that your article is available as a pre-print or in process of becoming a pre-print.

Article Publishing Charge for Open Access

Article Publishing Charge

As of 2023 the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease is a fully open access journal. Papers submitted for publication are subject to an article publishing fee (APC). The APC for the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease is currently US$2800.

When an article is accepted for publication in the journal, the acceptance letter will give instructions regarding fulfilling the APC payment. Authors can pay the fee by credit card or through bank transfer. Payment of the APC must be received before an article is published in the journal. Paid fees are not restituted if an article is withdrawn or retracted after acceptance.

Authors may be eligible for discounts to their APC via open access agreements that Sage has with participating institutions. Discounts depend on the terms of the agreement, find out if your institution is participating by visiting the institutional agreements page at IOS Press.

 Eligibility is determined by the corresponding author’s affiliation at acceptance matching an agreement.

Your article may be eligible for a full or partial waiver due to our participation in initiatives to increase accessibility to publication across the international academic community. .

More information about discounts and eligibility.

Open Access Publishing Licenses

The Journal of Parkinson’s Disease has transitioned to a full open access journal for its 2023 volume and onwards, thereby meeting all major funders' open access publishing mandates. The standard license under which articles are published is CC BY-NC 4.0 (open access non-commercial). Authors will have the option of purchasing the CC BY 4.0 copyright license, as required by certain funding agencies, for a surcharge. For more information on these open access licenses, see https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/.

 More information on open access mandates (NIH/RCUK/Wellcome Trust) are available here.

Pre-Print, Proofs and Reprints

Pre-Press and Proofs
Proofs are prepared by our typesetters, Thomson Digital, and will be sent to the authors a few weeks after acceptance (typically 2-3 weeks). The corrected proofs will be placed in our online contents and indexed in PubMed as "Epub ahead of print" articles after corrections are received from the authors. The pre-press article is fully citable by using the DOI number. This is not the final version. When the article is published in an issue, the final, updated version replaces the pre-press version.

The corresponding author will receive a PDF of the proofs and is asked to check the proofs carefully (the publisher will execute a cursory check only). Corrections other than printer's errors, however, should be avoided. Costs arising from such corrections will be charged to the authors. Please be sure to return your corrections as quickly as possible.

Important Note: Any changes to authors or title after acceptance should also be sent to the editorial office (jpd@iospress.com) so our records can be updated. After acceptance, any additions or deletions to the list of authors MUST be approved by the Editor-in-Chief, and all authors on the manuscript must also sign off on the changes.

Reprints and other orders
The corresponding author of a contribution to the journal receives a complimentary pdf of their published article. The pdf is automatically sent to the corresponding author after the article is published in an issue. The link to the article can be freely shared, as well as the PDF of articles published with a CC BY-4.0 license. Articles published under a CC BY-NC license cannot be shared commercially without permission, which must be granted by the publisher (permissions@iospress.com)

Print orders
Free print copies of an issue will not be provided for conference proceedings and abstract issues unless agreed upon in advance.

The possibility to place orders for reprints, additional journal copies, or print color figures can be done through an order form to which the corresponding author will be provided a link in the decision letter. If you wish to order reprints of an earlier published article, please contact the publisher for a quotation. IOS Press Email: editorial@iospress.nl.

An author is entitled to 25% discount on IOS Press books. See Author's Discount (25%) on all IOS Press book publications.

Submission Guidelines

 

SUBMIT YOUR MANUSCRIPT HERE

Please note that articles submitted to the journal are required to pay an Article Publishing Charge (APC) of US$2800 on acceptance, unless a waiver has been granted. All papers will be published under an open access license. More information on this APC can be found here.

Before submitting please make sure that your article fits into the Aims and Scope: The primary focus of any submitted work should always be on Parkinson's disease or atypical parkinsonism. Research studies that focus on more heterogeneous populations, and where Parkinson's disease or parkinsonism is included merely as one of various conditions, and that do not have an explicit focus on issues related specifically to Parkinson's disease, will not be considered for publication.


SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS: AUTHOR INSTRUCTIONS

Please follow the directions of the peer review submission system. You can submit your files (document, figures, supplementary files) separately in the system, and the system will generate a final pdf for your approval. Resubmissions should include the author's replies to the reviewer comments in the revised manuscript itself (at the top) and should clearly show the changes throughout the document, for instance, by highlighting the changed text. The revised paper should always be a Word document.

Submission of an article is understood to imply that the article is original and unpublished and is not being considered for publication elsewhere. If your article has been published as a pre-print, it would be helpful to the Editor if you mention this in the cover letter. Any possible conflict of interest, financial or otherwise, related to the submitted work must be clearly indicated in the manuscript. Procedures involving experiments on human subjects should be in accord with the ethical standards of the Committee on Human Experimentation of the institution in which the experiments were done or in accord with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975. Procedures involving experimentation on animal subjects should be in accord with either the guide of the institution in which the experiments were done, or with the National Research Council’s guide for the care and use of laboratory animals.

If the address to which proofs should be sent is different from the correspondence address, authors are kindly requested to indicate this. Both the editor and the publisher should be informed of any changes in either or both of these addresses. Please also supply a direct telephone number if available.

PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS

Research Reports

Organization and style of presentation
Manuscripts must be written in US English. Authors whose native language is not English are recommended to seek the advice of a native English speaker or English language service before submitting their manuscripts..

Word count: There are no specific limits, but the Editors-in-Chief ask that all articles are as concise and succinct as possible. As a broad guideline, research articles are usually between 2000-4000 words.

Abbreviations: Authors should strive to minimize the use of abbreviations. Policy is to use no more than 5 abbreviations in your manuscript; preference is for authors to write most terms fully. This will improve the readability of papers.

Manuscripts should be double spaced throughout with wide margins (2.5cm or 1in), including the abstract and references. Every page of the manuscript, including the title page, references, tables, etc., should include a page number centered at the bottom.

Manuscripts should be organized in the following order with headings and subheadings typed on a separate line, without indentation. 

Title Page

  1. Title (should be clear, descriptive and concise).
  2. Full name(s) of author(s).
  3. Full affiliation(s). Delineate affiliations with lowercase letters.
  4. Present address of author(s), if different from affiliation.
  5. Running title (45 characters or less, including spaces).
  6. Complete correspondence address, including telephone number and e-mail address.

Leave the author information blank if double-blind peer review is wished for, but do include the information in the submission letter to the editor.

Changes in Authorship

When submitting the manuscript the author listing and order should be final. If any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list does need to be made after submission, this can be done only before acceptance and with the Editor’s approval. To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (1) the reason for the change in author list and (2) written confirmation from all authors, including the affected author, that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement.

Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended. If the manuscript has already been published in an issue, any requests approved by the Editor will result in an Erratum.

Please read the IOS Press authorship policy here for further information.

Abstract and Keywords
The abstract for research papers should follow the “structured abstract” format:
BACKGROUND:
OBJECTIVE:
METHODS:
RESULTS:
CONCLUSIONS:
The abstract should try to be no longer than 250 words. 
For other papers such as Reviews, the abstract should be clear, descriptive, and self-explanatory, and no longer than 250 words.
Include a list of 4-10 keywords. These keywords should be terms from the MeSH database.

Plain Language Summary

As of March 25, 2024, Inclusion of a Plain Language Summary is required for all submissions with an abstract. Visually it looks like a second abstract below the regular abstract, and it will be visible on indexers’ sites such as Pubmed below the regular abstract. It should be no longer than 250 words. It should prode a clear summary of the article using non-technical language, making it accessible to a wider network of readers. It is required that the Plain Language Summary is written according to the instructions given on the dedicated instruction page, and the author should have the text reviewed by a Person with Parkinson’s before submission. The instructions on how to write or review a Plain Language Summary, including examples, can be found here: https://www.journalofparkinsonsdisease.com/plain-language-summaries

Introduction

Materials and Methods
There is no word limit to the materials and methods section, as the journal’s policy is that methodological rigour and reproducibility is of great importance.

Results

Discussion

Acknowledgments

Include individuals or companies which have assisted with your study, including advisors, administrative support and suppliers who may have donated or given materials used in the study. If there are no acknowledgments, then do still include this section and insert: “The authors have no acknowledgments to report.”

Funding

Include all funding sources for the study. If there is no funding involved, then do still include this section and insert: “The authors have no funding to report.”

Conflict of Interest

All affiliations or financial involvement (e.g., employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants, patents received or pending, royalties) with any organization or entity with a financial interest in, or in financial competition with, the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript must be completely disclosed in the submitted manuscript.
If there is no conflict of interest to declare, do still include this section and insert "The authors have no conflict of interest to report". If an author is also on the Editorial Board of this journal, the following statement should be included in this section: “ is an Editorial Board member of this journal, but was not involved in the peer-review process of this article nor had access to any information regarding its peer review.’’

Datasets/Data Availability Statement (Required for Research Reports, Short Communications, and Systematic Reviews/Meta-Analyses)
All datasets and data articles cited in your manuscript should be included in the reference list of your article (not in a separate box or in the article text). Data references should include: author name(s), dataset title, data repository, version (where available), year, and identifier (DOI/URL/etc.).
Authors should include a Data Availability statement at the end of the manuscript (before the References) to describe the availability or the absence of shared data. Authors are required to deposit sequence or proteomic data into a public repository (eg. GEO, Chorus) and include a link to the repository and data, and encouraged to publicly archive their research data including, but not limited to: software, algorithms, protocols, methods, and/or materials. Exceptions are made if sharing data compromises ethical standards or legal requirements.
Examples for your paper’s “Data Availability" statement:
1. The data supporting the findings of this study are openly available in [repository name] at [DOI and/or URL]. These data were derived from the following resources available in the public domain: [list resources and URLs].
2. The data supporting the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.
3. The data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and/or its supplementary material.
4. Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during this study.

Artificial Intelligence Policy
Artificial intelligence (such as language models, machine learning systems, or similar technologies) cannot be authors of a manuscript. If these models or tools are used to produce content or aid in writing and manuscript preparation, the authors of the manuscript bear the responsibility for the quality and ethical standards of the generated content. Authors must acknowledge the utilization of these tools/technologies in the Methods section if integrated into formal research design or methods or if used for literature searches. If these tools/technologies are used to modify text written by the authors, this should be included in the Acknowledgment section. Authors must include details such as a description of the content created or modified, the name of the language model or tool, its version, extension numbers, and the manufacturer. Examples: "Approximately 15% of the text in this manuscript was generated with the assistance of ChatGPT, version [version number], a language model developed by OpenAI (https://www.openai.com)." or "ChatGPT, version [version number], a language model developed by OpenAI (https://www.openai.com), was used for language refinement of this manuscript.

References

All references should be formatted in the style of Sage Vancouver.
Download the EndNote style from EndNote (https://endnote.com/downloads/styles/sage-vancouver/. A .csl file is available here: https://www.zotero.org/styles/sage-vancouver)

  1. Place citations as numbers in superscript numbers in the text in order of appearance (outside punctuation; e.g., "Alzheimer's disease.1"), beginning in the text, then tables, and then figure legends. Each citation should be to one manuscript only. All publications cited in the text should be presented in a list of references following the text of the manuscript. Only articles published or accepted for publication should be listed in the reference list. Submitted articles can be listed in the text as (Author(s), unpublished data) and should NOT be numbered and included in the reference list. Personal communications should also only appear in the text (e.g., "Person name, personal communication") and not in the reference list.
  2. List up to 3 authors and then use "et al."
  3. Please include doi numbers for "in press" articles if available. 
  4. Carefully check for and remove any duplicates (especially when using reference software).
  5. References should be listed in the order of appearance in the following style:

1. Moors TE, Milovanovic D. Defining a Lewy Body: Running Up the Hill of Shifting Definitions and Evolving Concepts? J Parkinsons Dis 2024; 14: 17-33.
2. Murphy MP and LeVine H, 3rd. Alzheimer's disease and the amyloid-beta peptide. J Alzheimers Dis 2010; 19: 311-323.
3. Paxinos G and Watson C. The rat brain in stereotaxic coordinates. 7th ed. London: Academic Press, 2013, p. 480.
4. Langston JW, Palfreman J The Case of the Frozen Addicts. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2014, p. 122.
5. Smith MA. Oxidative stress and iron imbalance in Alzheimer disease: how rust became the fuss! In: Perry G, Avila J, Kinoshita J, et al. (eds) Alzheimer's disease: a century of scientific and clinical research. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2006, pp.305-308.
6. LoBue C, Munro C, Schaffert J, et al. Traumatic brain injury and risk of long-term brain changes, accumulation of pathological markers, and developing dementia: a review. In: Castellani RJ (ed) Handbook of Traumatic Brain Injury and Neurodegeneration. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2020, pp.193-218.
7. Prince M, Comas-Herrera A, Knapp M, et al. World Alzheimer Report 2016. Improving Healthcare for People Living with Dementia: Coverage, Quality and Costs Now and in the Future. Alzheimer’s Disease International, London, UK, 2016.
8. Alzheimer Research Forum. Drugs in Clinical Trials: AAB-001, http://www.alzforum.org/drg/drc/detail.asp?id=101 (2023, accessed 7 June 2024).
9. World Health Organization. Dementia, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dementia (2023, accessed 7 June 2024).
10. Yang HS, Teng L, Kang D, et al. Cell-type-specific Alzheimer’s disease polygenic risk scores are associated with distinct disease processes in Alzheimer’s disease. medRxiv 2023 20230605. DOI: 10.1101/2023.06.01.23290850 [Preprint]. Posted 5 June 2023.

If you are using EndNote and the journal names are not properly abbreviating, please try updating your Journals Term List (https://support.clarivate.com/Endnote/s/article/EndNote-20-Generate-full-or-abbreviated-journal-names?language=en_US).

Tables
Number according to their sequence in the text. The text should include references to all tables.
Provide each table on a separate page of the manuscript after the references.
Include a brief and self-explanatory title with any explanations essential to the understanding of the table given in footnotes at the bottom of the table.
Vertical lines should not be used to separate columns. Leave some extra space between the columns instead.

Figures
Number the figures according to their sequence in the text. The text should include references to all figures.
For the file formats of the figures please take the following into account:

  • Line art should have a minimum resolution of 1200 dpi, save as EPS or TIFF.
    - Do not use faint lines and/or lettering and check that all lines and lettering within the figures are legible at final size.
    - All lines should be at least 0.1 mm (0.3 pt) wide.
    - Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.
  • Grayscales (incl photos) should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi, or 600 dpi for combination art (lettering and images); save as TIFF.
  • Do not save figures as JPEG, this format may lose information in the process
  • Do not use figures taken from the Internet, the resolution will be too low for printing
  • Do not use color in your figures if they are to be printed in black & white, as this will reduce the print quality (note that in software often the default is color, you should change the settings)
  • For figures that should be printed in color, please send a CMYK encoded EPS or TIFF

Figures should be designed with the format of JPD in mind and preferable sized as they will appear when printed. A single column of the journal is 77mm and two columns are 165mm.

Figures should be cropped to include the figure only (no blank space).

On figures where a scale is needed, use bar scales to avoid problems if the figure needs to be reduced.

Each illustration should have a brief self-explanatory legend that should be typed separately from the figure in the section of the manuscript following the tables.

Costs for color figures in the print version of the journal are as follows: 1 figure - 650 euro; 2 figures - 900 euro; 3 figures - 1050 euro; 4 figures - 1200 euro; 5 figures - 1350 euro. Cost for each additional color figure will be 150 euro. Color figures are free in the electronic version of the journal. You may opt to send in both black/white figures for print, and color figures for the online PDF (please adjust the figure legend appropriately).

Image integrity
Images submitted with a manuscript for review should be minimally processed. No specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced. The grouping or consolidation of images from multiple sources must be made explicit by the arrangement of the figure and in the figure legend. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable if they are applied to the whole image and if they do not obscure, eliminate, or misrepresent any information present in the original, including backgrounds.

Unprocessed data files may be requested to help in manuscript evaluation during the peer review process or may be needed to respond to post-publication issues that may arise with published papers. Unprocessed data and metadata files should be retained, ideally forever.

Unprocessed original images of gels and western blots must be included with submissions as Supplementary Material for reviewers to examine (not for publication). This must include the full blots, not cropped sections, with target proteins, loading controls, molecular weights, and experimental conditions clearly indicated.

Supplementary Data
Supplementary data can be submitted with the manuscript, included within the manuscript after the Figures and Tables (or otherwise after the References). Each supplementary item should have a legend and should not exceed the file size of 10MB. Supplemental videos can be submitted separately (see top of page for submission guidelines of videos). A short description of the supplementary items should be included under the header of “Supplementary Material” within the manuscript before the “References”. Large datasets should be hosted on the author’s own or institute’s website or in an appropriate database, and should be properly cited within the manuscript.

Reviews
Reviews should be authoritative and topical and provide comprehensive and balanced coverage of a timely and/or controversial issue. Reviews should be prepared as detailed above for a Research Report omitting Introduction through Discussion, and include a Conclusion. When submitting a Review, clearly signify the article as such in the submission title by using: "REVIEW: full article title". There is no word count limit, but the Editors-in-Chief ask to keep the manuscript to the point and non-repetitive.

Short Communications
A short communication is an article of original scholarship of unusual interest of less than 1500 words (not including references). An abstract of 100 words or less should be included with no subdivision of text into sections. References should be formatted as above. A total of two tables and/or figures are allowed.

Case reports
The Journal of Parkinson's Disease infrequently publishes clinical descriptions of a single case or a very small case series. These case reports should describe a new or unexpected clinical observation that may have implications for daily clinical care, or that could inspire further research. Submissions for this category should include a brief introduction, a detailed description of the clinical case, followed by a succinct summary of the implications for either daily clinical care or for further research. We welcome the inclusion of videos that illustrate the clinical phenomenon that is being described, if applicable. Case reports should not exceed a maximum of 1500 words.

Global Parkinson’s Disease Articles
This section is edited by Associate Editor Roongroj Bhidayasiri. This section aims to highlight the diverse challenges and unique features of PD in different geographical regions. We welcome original research in clinical medicine, translational research, and basic science from all members of the PD healthcare and research communities for this new section. The goal is to share effective solutions and celebrate successful strategies or efforts being made to overcome the challenges being faced in countries and regions around the world. This may include the pathophysiology of PD, impact of environmental factors, access to and availability of treatments, and use of new technologies to improve care provision. Articles should follow the format of a research article or short communication.
Editorial: Tackling Parkinson’s Disease as a Global Challenge

Replication Studies
Authors who are interested in submitting a replication study should first send a short presubmission enquiry to the editors-in-chief indicating which experiment(s) they are attempting to replicate. Only those authors who receive a positive response to their presubmission enquiry should proceed to submitting their full manuscript. Replication studies should present previously unpublished results from experiments that attempt to replicate previously published high-impact publications within the Parkinson’s disease field. These studies should present data resulting from direct replications or very close conceptual replications of one or more key experiments from other laboratories. They must have been performed by a group or groups independent of those that published the original study. Replication studies should have appropriate controls, sufficient statistical power, and adequate characterization of reagents, biosamples, and laboratory models. Whether the results are negative or positive, the authors should attempt to clarify any points of contention around original findings and/or provide reasonable explanations for deviations from the original findings.
When submitting, select the article type “Replication Study”. The publishing charge for Replication Studies is waived.

"How I Examine My Patient" Articles
The section “How I Examine My Patient" hosts short and clinical summaries of the application and results of standard diagnostic tests and therapies. These articles could concern history taking, physical examination or ancillary tests and the description should be concrete, for use in everyday clinical practice.

Articles should be a maximum of 750 words with a maximum of 8 references in the following format:

  • Introduction of the clinical dilemma (5-10 sentences)
  • Short description of the test or therapy (can be accompanied by a table, figure or supplemental film)
  • Discussion (results in own practice)
  • Conclusions

One illustrative figure or video, and a summary table may be included.

"Advice to People with Parkinson's in My Clinic" Articles
For this specific section of the journal, we are seeking submissions around clinically relevant questions that commonly arise in daily clinical practice, but for which there is at this point insufficient scientific evidence to make a definitive recommendation. The paper should always have the following structure for the title: "Advice to people with Parkinson's in my clinic: Exercise" or "Advice to people with Parkinson's in my clinic: Cannabis" (exercise and cannabis were just recent examples here).

For the structure of the text itself, we allow fair degree of flexibility, although we recommend that you start by describing why the clinical question that you discuss is actually a commonly occurring problem in clinical practice, and then focus on discussing whatever evidence is available, but also highlighting the lack thereof. Importantly, each paper should end with a dedicated section with the header "What we tell people with Parkinson's in our clinic?"

The typical word count for such a paper would be around 1500 words, although we are open to considering a motivated expansion to a longer paper.

“Hidden Gems" from The Literature of Parkinsonism
The goal of articles in this section is to provide the current generation of readers with significant clinical observations that were published years ago and might be neglected in current reviews or textbooks. Articles should provide an overview of up to 1,000 words, and can add up-to-date insights. Including a short abstract and keywords is recommended as it will help your article's discoverability. They can focus on a single paper, or cite more than one “hidden gem” dealing with the same disorder. This section is by invitation only. If you wish to write for this section, then please first discuss your idea with the Associate Editor for "Hidden Gems": Peter LeWitt.

Opinion/Position Papers
Opinion or Position Papers provide readers with a snapshot update of a highly topical subject in which the author shares their perspective and thoughts on advances and critical issues in the field and speculates on potential outcomes and future developments. These articles are not intended to provide a comprehensive review of a subject area, rather the intention is to help foster debate and discussion around key areas of Parkinson’s disease research and therapy. Position Papers present an arguable opinion about an issue and can be supported by reasonable preponderance of empirical evidence. Guidelines:
• Opinion papers should have a maximum of 1000 words (excluding the abstract and references) and Position papers a word count between 2000-4000 words. Both should have an abstract (max 250 words) and 3–5 key words
• Up to 4 figures or tables and 10 references may be included
• To include more words, figures, tables, and references, please get approval of one of the Editors-in-Chief or Associate Editors
• The format of the Title Page, Authorship, Abstract, Keywords, Figures, Tables, References, and Disclosures should follow that for Research Reports
• These article types must pay the required Article Processing Charges for open access unless they were invited.

Hypotheses
A hypothesis article should be a balanced and insightful consideration of a topic with novel hypotheses well presented and supported. The article should be prepared as a Research Report but without Methods or Results sections.

Book Reviews
Book reviews should be 750 words or less and without sections. Suggestions can be proposed to the Editors-in-Chief.

Letters to the Editor
These are short letters to JPD that are either: A) Relating to a specific issue/case history. Authors can submit a Letter to the Editor of 1000 words or less for possible inclusion. The Letter should include an abstract (100 words max) but no other subdivisions, and should not include more than 15 references and one figure or table. B) Comments of 1000 words or less concerning prior articles published in JPD or elsewhere. Letters should have a title, include appropriate references, and include the corresponding author's e-mail address. Letters can be edited, sometimes extensively, to sharpen their focus. They will be accepted, or may be sent for peer review, at the discretion of the Editors. The author of the original paper will be offered to write a response.

Commentaries
Commentaries can be around 1000 words with an abstract and no other subdivisions.

 

REMEMBER TO INCLUDE

In cover letter
Name, postal address, phone number and e-mail address of the corresponding author.

Name of an Associate Editor with expertise in the area of the study (if no Associate Editor is suitable, the Editorial Office will handle the submission).

Statement that all authors have contributed to the work, agree with the presented findings, and that the work has not been published before nor is being considered for publication in another journal.

A list of at least 4-6 potential reviewers knowledgeable in the area of the study and potential reviewer conflicts.

Statement that procedures involving experiments on human subjects are done in accord with the ethical standards of the Committee on Human Experimentation of the institution in which the experiments were done or in accord with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975.

Statement that procedures involving experimentation on animal subjects are done in accord with either the guide of the institution in which the experiments were done, or with the National Research Council's guide for the care and use of laboratory animals.

All affiliations with or financial involvement (e.g., employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, royalties) with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or in financial competition with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript are completely disclosed in the letter of submission.

In manuscript
Compliance with guidelines on human experimentation as well as protocol approval by a local Institutional Review Board should be specified.

Compliance with guidelines of animal experimentation as well as protocol approval by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee should be specified.

Statement of all financial and material support for this research and any potential conflicts should also be clearly identified in the Acknowledgment and Conflict of Interest sections. If there is no Conflict-of-Interest then still add this statement.

All financial and material support for this research and work are clearly identified in the manuscript including listing of support specified in the letter of submission that might constitute or give the appearance of influencing the findings, based on the judgment of the Editor-in-Chief in consultation with the Associate Editor handling the review of the manuscript.

Resubmissions
Resubmissions should include the manuscript number and a reference that the paper is a revision. The point-by-point response to the previous reviews should be included at the top of the manuscript. It would be helpful to the reviewer to submit a tracked version of your paper, so the changes can be quickly found in the document.

KUDOS
Authors of published articles (non-prepress, final articles) will be contacted by Kudos. Kudos is a service that helps researchers maximize the impact and visibility of their research. It allows authors to enrich their articles with lay metadata, add links to related materials and promote their articles through the Kudos system to a wider public. Authors will receive no more than three emails: one invitation and a maximum of two reminders to register for the service and link the published article to their profile. Using and registering for Kudos remains entirely optional. For more information, please have a look at our authors section.

About Jon Palfreman

Jon Palfreman joined the JPD editorial board as Social Media Editor in 2013. In this capacity he selected and posted news of interest to the PD research community on the JPD Facebook page. His current role relating to the JPD website is to share blog posts, that can include opinion pieces or interviews with scientists and patients, among others. He can be reached at jpalfreman @ pfgmedia.com (remove the spaces).

Biography:
Jon Palfreman, PhD is KEZI Distinguished Professor of Broadcast Journalism at the University of Oregon, USA. Palfreman is an Emmy, Dupont and Peabody Award-winning journalist, and recipient of the Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Writing. He is a three-time winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science science writing prize, three-time winner of the National Association of Science Writers "Science-in-Society" Journalism Award and a winner of the Writers Guild Award for best script. In the area of Parkinson's Disease research, Palfreman co-authored a book with neuroscientist Bill Langston (JPD co-Editor-in-Chief), The Case of the Frozen Addicts (Pantheon Books; 1995), and produced two NOVA documentaries chronicling the story of the MPTP cases, NOVA: The Case of the Frozen Addict, and NOVA: Brain Transplant. Palfreman is a 2006 Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University.

Book: The Case of the Frozen Addicts
In association with JPD, The Case of the Frozen Addicts: How the Solution of a Medical Mystery Revolutionized the Understanding of Parkinson's Disease, written by J. William Langston and Jon Palfreman, was published as a revised 2nd edition (IOS Press; 2014). This book describes how the solution to a baffling mystery of the brain’s chemistry opened a new frontier in medicine and restored life to people without hope. This updated edition of the classic neurological mystery tale is  available in print, epub or PDF format. Read an interview with Dr Palfreman at the time of publication of the 2nd edition of Frozen Addicts here. To order your copy, see below:
*Order this book via IOS Press

Book: Brain Storms
In September 2015, Jon Palfreman’s new book “Brain Storms: The Race to Unlock the Mysteries of Parkinson's Disease” was released. Read an interview with Dr Palfreman at the time of publication of Brain Storms here. To order your copy, see below:
*Order this book in the USA
*Order this book in Canada
*Order this book in the Netherlands

Blog

The JPD blog includes news items and articles of interest to the PD research and PD patient communities. Jon Palfreman has been the primary contributor to this section since 2013 (his blog posts can be found here), joined in 2018 by Benjamin Stecher (his blog posts can be found here). In the specific sections, articles from these authors can be found and these blog posts and stories relating to PD are unique content created for the journal website. Jon Palfreman also authors two sections called Neuroscientist's Corner and The Patient Perspective. Benjamin Stecher additionally authors a section called Tomorrow Edition Extracts. Contributions from guest bloggers are also included.

 

Top 250 Most-Cited PD Investigators (2001–2010)

In 2011, a paper was published in JPD by Aaron Sorenson and David Weedon in which the authors listed the top 100 most-cited authors in the field of Parkinson's disease. As noted in the paper's abstract:

"The authors have compiled a list of the 100 most cited researchers in Parkinson's disease since 1985 as a means to assess productivity and impact. Within the total-citations ranking, “broad impact” citations were used as a way of identifying those researchers whose work is cited widely beyond the Parkinson's disease research community."

A longer list was compiled during that research process and here are the top 250 authors for the years 2001 to 2010 (the first 100 of which appeared in the published paper in Table 4).

 

View the article (2011) to read more about the analysis and selection criteria

  1. Lang AE

  2. Farrer MJ

  3. Lees AJ

  4. Olanow CW

  5. Singleton A

  6. Przedborski S

  7. Wood NW

  8. Pollak P

  9. Benabid A-L

  10. Poewe W

  11. Jankovic J

  12. Fahn S

  13. Hardy J

  14. Agid Y

  15. Lozano AM

  16. Albanese A

  17. Goetz CG

  18. Dawson TM

  19. Cookson MR

  20. Maraganore DM

  21. Aarsland D

  22. Brooks DJ

  23. Stoessl AJ

  24. Koller WC

  25. Kachergus J

  26. Bonifati V

  27. Gasser T

  28. Brice A

  29. Tolosa E

  30. Gwinn-Hardy K

  31. Quinn NP

  32. Stern MB

  33. Jackson-Lewis V

  34. Pahwa R

  35. Mizuno Y

  36. Obeso JA

  37. Krack P

  38. Dawson VL

  39. Eidelberg D

  40. Kieburtz K

  41. Watts RL

  42. Braak H

  43. Nutt JG

  44. Beal MF

  45. Larsen JP

  46. Rascol O

  47. Wszolek ZK

  48. Del Tredici K

  49. Nussbaum RL

  50. Vila M

  51. Oertel WH

  52. Hattori N

  53. Klein C

  54. Tanner CM

  55. Bonnet A-M

  56. Isacson O

  57. Ondo WG

  58. Volkmann J

  59. Hirsch EC

  60. Barker RA

  61. Healy DG

  62. Rüb U

  63. Jenner P

  64. DeLong MR

  65. Deuschl G

  66. Shoulson I

  67. Abou-Sleiman PM

  68. Dickson DW

  69. Trojanowski JQ

  70. Stocchi F

  71. Oostra BA

  72. Burn DJ

  73. Youdim MBH

  74. Marek K

  75. de Vos RAI

  76. Giladi N

  77. Shults CW

  78. Adler CH

  79. Teismann P

  80. McKeith IG

  81. Berg D

  82. Hauser RA

  83. McNaught KStP

  84. Brown P

  85. Baptista MJ

  86. Vitek JL

  87. Meco G

  88. Schapira AHV

  89. Björklund A

  90. Fraix V

  91. Lansbury PT

  92. Greenamyre JT

  93. Tieu K

  94. Bentivoglio AR

  95. Gilks WP

  96. Schwarzschild MA

  97. Sampaio C

  98. Vieregge P

  99. Houeto J-L

  100. Kulisevsky J

  101. Lincoln S

  102. Hulihan M

  103. Johnson J

  104. Oostra BA

  105. Ahlskog JE

  106. Heutink P

  107. Vanacore N

  108. Moro E

  109. Rodriguez-Oroz MC

  110. Rajput A

  111. Hubble JP

  112. Calne DB

  113. Dhawan V

  114. Langston JW

  115. Uitti RJ

  116. Valente EM

  117. Siderowf A

  118. Ascherio A

  119. Kordower JH

  120. Durr A

  121. Wu DC

  122. Breedveld GJ

  123. Feigin A

  124. Tan EK

  125. Kirik D

  126. Sherer TB

  127. Wolters EC

  128. Antonini A

  129. LeWitt P

  130. Hilker R

  131. Lee VMY

  132. Guridi J

  133. Hague S

  134. Sanchez-Pernaute R

  135. Steur ENHJ

  136. Jain S

  137. Brotchie JM

  138. Hernandez D

  139. Weiner WJ

  140. Rocca WA

  141. Destee A

  142. Robbins TW

  143. Stacy M

  144. Ravina B

  145. Valldeoriola F

  146. Betarbet R

  147. Paisan-Ruiz C

  148. Kupsch A

  149. Vance JM

  150. Hanson M

  151. Crawley A

  152. Ibanez P

  153. Perlmutter JS

  154. Revesz T

  155. Oakes D

  156. Muqit MMK

  157. Brundin P

  158. Riess O

  159. Hunot S

  160. Rudolph A

  161. Emre M

  162. Pezzoli G

  163. Bower JH

  164. Pramstaller PP

  165. Wenning GK

  166. West AB

  167. Andersen JK

  168. Rehncrona S

  169. Breeze RE

  170. Zimprich A

  171. Dallapiccola B

  172. Braak E

  173. Bakay RAE

  174. Freed CR

  175. Choi DK

  176. Biskup S

  177. Suchowersky O

  178. de Silva R

  179. Pidoux B

  180. Selkoe DJ

  181. Dauer W

  182. Defebvre L

  183. Melamed E

  184. Rizzu P

  185. Greene PE

  186. Pfeiffer RF

  187. Reichmann H

  188. Fernandez HH

  189. Dillon S

  190. Gironell A

  191. Chabardes S

  192. Kim JH

  193. Scott WK

  194. Levy R

  195. Nicholl D

  196. Sossi V

  197. Chase TN

  198. Lohmann E

  199. Mesnage V

  200. Lopiano L

  201. van Duijn CM

  202. Bezard E

  203. Schulz JB

  204. Ardouin C

  205. Caputo V

  206. Scerrati M

  207. Kruger R

  208. Bloem BR

  209. Peuralinna T

  210. Riederer P

  211. Muller T

  212. Muenter M

  213. Freund HJ

  214. Marder K

  215. Chaudhuri KR

  216. Seibyl J

  217. Moore DJ

  218. Van Blercom N

  219. Masliah E

  220. Miller D

  221. Blancato J

  222. Dutra A

  223. Squitieri F

  224. Mazzone P

  225. Shinaman A

  226. Iansek R

  227. Krause M

  228. Tronnier V

  229. Bonuccelli U

  230. Sturm V

  231. Welter ML

  232. Lichtner P

  233. Weintraub D

  234. Holton JL

  235. Ischiropoulos H

  236. Goldwurm S

  237. Colcher A

  238. Gandhi S

  239. Latchman DS

  240. de Andrade M

  241. Lesnick TG

  242. Samii A

  243. Litvan I

  244. Hernan MA

  245. Kamp C

  246. Bonini NM

  247. Cortelli P

  248. Ross OA

  249. Bhatia KP

  250. Guttman M

Top 250 Most-Cited PD Investigators (1985–2010)

In 2011, a paper was published in JPD by Aaron Sorenson and David Weedon in which the authors listed the top 100 most-cited authors in the field of Parkinson's disease. As noted in the paper's abstract:

"The authors have compiled a list of the 100 most cited researchers in Parkinson's disease since 1985 as a means to assess productivity and impact. Within the total-citations ranking, “broad impact” citations were used as a way of identifying those researchers whose work is cited widely beyond the Parkinson's disease research community."

A longer list was compiled during that research process and here are the top 250 authors for the years 1985 to 2010 (the first 100 of which appeared in the published paper in Table 1).

 

View the article (2011) to read more about the analysis and selection criteria

  1. Lees AJ

  2. Marsden CD

  3. Agid Y

  4. Lang AE

  5. Olanow CW

  6. Brooks DJ

  7. Jenner P

  8. Mizuno Y

  9. Fahn S

  10. Benabid A-L

  11. Goetz CG

  12. Quinn NP

  13. Pollak P

  14. Hirsch EC

  15. Koller WC

  16. Lozano AM

  17. Riederer P

  18. Jankovic J

  19. Daniel SE

  20. Tanner CM

  21. Farrer MJ

  22. Obeso JA

  23. Björklund A

  24. Hattori N

  25. Youdim MBH

  26. Langston JW

  27. Golbe LI

  28. Schapira AHV

  29. Przedborski S

  30. Calne DB

  31. Nutt JG

  32. Rascol O

  33. Wood NW

  34. Gasser T

  35. Poewe W

  36. Dexter DT

  37. Jellinger KA

  38. Nussbaum RL

  39. Javoy-Agid F

  40. Chase TN

  41. Maraganore DM

  42. Bonifati V

  43. DeLong MR

  44. Shoulson I

  45. Oertel WH

  46. Stern MB

  47. Duvoisin RC

  48. Krack P

  49. Bonnet A-M

  50. Singleton A

  51. Larsen JP

  52. Hughes AJ

  53. Kieburtz K

  54. Mayeux R

  55. Rothwell JC

  56. Hardy J

  57. Brice A

  58. Limousin P

  59. Brundin P

  60. Eidelberg D

  61. Albanese A

  62. Pahwa R

  63. LeWitt P

  64. Polymeropoulos MH

  65. Dawson TM

  66. Lindvall O

  67. Robbins TW

  68. Frackowiak RSJ

  69. Aarsland D

  70. Hauser RA

  71. Rajput AH

  72. Pfeiffer RF

  73. Wszolek ZK

  74. Benazzouz A

  75. Kordower J

  76. Marek K

  77. Weiner WJ

  78. Rehncrona S

  79. Tolosa E

  80. Hubble JP

  81. Watts RL

  82. Trojanowski JQ

  83. Jackson-Lewis V

  84. Sawle GV

  85. Müller T

  86. Widner H

  87. Stoessl AJ

  88. Meco G

  89. Shults CW

  90. Beal MF

  91. Leenders KL

  92. Vila M

  93. Greenamyre JT

  94. Johnson WG

  95. Lazzarini AM

  96. Friedman JH

  97. Dawson VL

  98. Gwinn-Hardy K

  99. Przuntek H

  100. Lansbury PT

  101. Lincoln S

  102. Brown RG

  103. Leroy E

  104. Dutra A

  105. Lavedan C

  106. Dehejia A

  107. Boyer R

  108. DiIorio G

  109. Braak H

  110. Juncos JL

  111. Lee VMY

  112. Marder K

  113. Rinne UK

  114. Ahlskog JE

  115. Crossman AR

  116. Waters C

  117. Kurlan R

  118. Cookson MR

  119. Kuhn W

  120. Montastruc JL

  121. Cote L

  122. Dubois B

  123. Cummings JL

  124. Vieregge P

  125. Riess O

  126. Shannon KM

  127. Snow BJ

  128. Stenroos ES

  129. Bergman H

  130. Minoshima S

  131. Kachergus J

  132. Vitek JL

  133. Pillon B

  134. Matsumine H

  135. Ide SE

  136. Factor SA

  137. Shimizu N

  138. Asakawa S

  139. Mouradian MM

  140. Nagatsu T

  141. Ruberg M

  142. Rinne JO

  143. Rocca WA

  144. Burn DJ

  145. Stocchi F

  146. Kruger R

  147. Hulihan M

  148. Cooper JM

  149. Isacson O

  150. Melamed E

  151. Papapetropoulos T

  152. Athanassiadou A

  153. Iansek R

  154. WELLS FR

  155. Durr A

  156. Korczyn AD

  157. Jahanshahi M

  158. McKeith IG

  159. Uitti RJ

  160. Chandrasekharappa S

  161. Pike B

  162. Root H

  163. Rubenstein J

  164. Hurtig HI

  165. Levy R

  166. Owen AM

  167. Damier P

  168. Perry RH

  169. Klein C

  170. Hoffmann D

  171. Hunot S

  172. Stebbins GT

  173. Sherer TB

  174. Oakes D

  175. Woitalla D

  176. Rudolph A

  177. Dhawan V

  178. Bakay RAE

  179. Giladi N

  180. de Vos RAI

  181. Freeman TB

  182. Gibb WRG

  183. Volkmann J

  184. STERN GM

  185. Dostrovsky JO

  186. Yokochi M

  187. Wenning GK

  188. Kilford L

  189. McDermott M

  190. Perl DP

  191. Welsh M

  192. Betarbet R

  193. Yamamura Y

  194. Hornykiewicz O

  195. Dickson DW

  196. Brotchie JM

  197. Kondo T

  198. McGeer EG

  199. McGeer PL

  200. Del Tredici K

  201. Schrag A

  202. Kitada T

  203. Broussolle E

  204. Oostra BA

  205. Deuschl G

  206. Antonini A

  207. Rodriguez-Oroz MC

  208. Barker RA

  209. Suchowersky O

  210. Spillantini MG

  211. Schulzer M

  212. Ardouin C

  213. Lynch T

  214. Wichmann T

  215. Parker WD

  216. Schols L

  217. Goedert M

  218. Stern Y

  219. Rub U

  220. Guridi J

  221. Healy DG

  222. Freed CR

  223. Perlmutter JS

  224. Summers BA

  225. Kish SJ

  226. Bennett JP

  227. Moro E

  228. Heutink P

  229. Fabbrini G

  230. Abou-Sleiman PM

  231. Tanaka M

  232. Sahakian BJ

  233. Kosel S

  234. Destee A

  235. Snyder SH

  236. Houeto JL

  237. Berg D

  238. Brown P

  239. Michel PP

  240. Braak E

  241. Kirik D

  242. Gustavii B

  243. Breeze RE

  244. Piccini P

  245. Vanacore N

  246. Epplen JT

  247. Johnson J

  248. Ondo WG

  249. Takahashi H

  250. Hallett M

Submission of Manuscripts

 

SUBMIT YOUR MANUSCRIPT HERE

Before submitting please make sure your article has followed the author guidelines.

Call for Papers

As of 2023 the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease is published online and in print as a fully open access journal. It offers a rigorous review process and operates with rapid manuscript processing times. The average time from submission to first decision is 18 days (the median average is 13 days).

There is an article publishing fee of US$2800 for accepted articles of the Journal of Parkinson's Disease.

Your accepted article will be freely accessible immediately upon publication, also in the Pre-Press module, as soon as payment is received. All papers will be automatically submitted to Pubmed Central by the publisher. See the publisher's website for more information on this Open Access option.

Subscribe

The Journal of Parkinson’s Disease (ISSN 1877-7171) is published in 1 volume of 8 issues.

Subscription Information for this journal up to 2023 can be found here at IOS Press.

From 2023 this journal will be published open access and online subscription prices will be discontinued. If you would like to subscribe to the print version of the journal from 2023 onwards, please visit the journal page at IOS Press and refer to the "print only" price.

You may also be interested in:

Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease
Journal of Huntington's Disease
Journal of Neuromuscular Diseases

Old Contact

 

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Tel: +31 20 688 3355
Fax: +31 20 687 0019
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For questions about submission and review of papers:

jpd@iospress.com

Contact information after acceptance of the paper:

For editorial matters:
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Aims and Scope

The Journal of Parkinson’s Disease is dedicated to providing an open forum for original research in basic science, translational research and clinical medicine that will expedite our fundamental understanding and improve treatment of Parkinson’s disease. The journal is international and multidisciplinary and aims to promote progress in the epidemiology, etiology, genetics, molecular correlates, pathogenesis, pharmacology, psychology, diagnosis and treatment of Parkinson’s disease. It will publish research reports, reviews, short communications, and letters-to-the-editor and offers very rapid publication and affordable open access.

Editorial Board

Editors-in-Chief

Bas Bloem, MD, PhD, FRCPE
Center of Expertise for Parkinson & Movement Disorders
Radboud University Medical Centre
Nijmegen, the Netherlands
Email: bas.bloem@iospress.com

Lorraine V. Kalia, MD, PhD, FRCPC
Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine
University of Toronto
Toronto, ON, Canada
Email: l.kalia@iospress.com

Editors-in-Chief Emeritus

Patrik Brundin, MD, PhD
Roche, Grand Rapids, MI, USA

J. William Langston, MD
Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA

Associate Editor for Reviews

Rodolfo Savica
Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, USA

Tiago Fleming Outeiro
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

Associate Editors

Roy N. Alcalay
Columbia University, New York, USA

Roger Barker
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Erwan Bezard
University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France

Roongroj Bhidayasiri
Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Camille B. Carroll
Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Mark R. Cookson
NIH, Bethesda, USA 

Kelly D. Foote
University of Florida/Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases, Gainesville, USA

Ziv Gan-Or
Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

Glenda Halliday
The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Nobutaka Hattori
Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

Jeffrey H. Kordower
Rush University, Chicago, USA

Tilo Kunath
University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

Matthew J. Lavoie
The University of Florida College of Medicine, Florida, USA

Simon J.G. Lewis
Macquarie University , Sydney, NSW, Australia

Anat Mirelman
Department of Neurology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

Caroline Moreau
Expert Center for Parkinson's Disease, University Hospital of Lille, Lille, France

Alice Nieuwboer
Catholic University Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Alastair Noyce
Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom

Laurie H. Sanders
Department of Neurology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA

Rick Schuurman
Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Antonio Strafella
Krembil Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada

Eng King Tan
Duke NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore, Singapore

Aleksandar Videnovic
Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA

Mayela Rodriguez Violante
Clinical Laboratory of Neurodegenerative Diseases, INNNMVS, Mexico City, Mexico

Nienke M. de Vries
University Medical Center Groningen , University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands

Doris Wang
Neurological Surgery, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, USA

Jian Wang
Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

Amanda L. Woerman
Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

Suneil Kalia, MD, PhD
Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

Associate Editors of Clinical Trials Highlights

Kevin McFarthing
Parkinson’s Advocate, Innovation Fixer Ltd, Oxford, UK

Tanya Simuni
Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Center,
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, USA

Associate Editor of Hidden Gems

Peter A. LeWitt
Department of Neurology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA

Associate Editor for Statistics

Jeremy Syrjanen
Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, USA

Social Media Editor

Carolina L. Soares
Department of Neurology, ULS São João, Porto, Portugal; Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine of University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

Managing Editor
Beth Kumar
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA
Email: jpd@iospress.com

Editorial Board
Dag Aarsland
University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway

Asa Abeliovich
Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, New York, USA

Yves Agid
Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, Paris, France

Alberto Albanese
National Neurological Hospital Carlo Besta, Milan, Italy

Ernest Arenas
Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

Alberto Ascherio
Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA

Alim Benabid
University of Grenoble, Grenoble, France

Daniela Berg
Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany

Hagai Bergman
The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

Erwan Bezard
University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France

Anders Björklund
Lund University, Lund, Sweden

David J Blacker
Perron Institute for neurological and translational science, Nedlands, Australia

Vincenzo Bonifati
Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Heiko Braak
University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany

Jose Bras
University College London, London, UK

Alexis Brice 
Pierre and Marie Curie University, Paris, France

Helen Bronte-Stewart
Stanford University, Palo Alto, USA

David J. Brooks
Hammersmith Hospital, London, United Kingdom

Paolo Calabresi
Policlinico Gemelli, Catholic University, Rome, Italy

M. Angela Cenci Nilsson
Lund University, Lund, Sweden

Piu Chan
Beijing Institute of Geriatrics, Beijing, China

K. Ray Chaudhuri
Kings College Hospital, London, United Kingdom

Marie Francoise Chesselet
University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA

Cynthia Comella
Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, USA

Ted M. Dawson
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA 

Valina L. Dawson
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA

Benjamin Dehay
University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France

Steve DeWitte
Connecticut Advocates for Parkinson's, New Preston Marble Dale, USA

Dennis Dickson
Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, USA

Robert H. Edwards
University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, USA 

David Eidelberg
The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, New York, USA

Omar M. El-Agnaf
United Arab Emirates University, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates

Alberto Espay
University of Cincinatti, Cincinatti, USA

Stanley Fahn
Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, New York, USA

Matt Farrer
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

Howard Federoff
Georgetown University, Washington, USA

Joaquim Ferreira
Hospital de Santa Maria, Lisbon, Portugal

Tom Foltynie
University College London, London, UK

Thomas Gasser
University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany

Larry Gifford
PD Avengers, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Nir Giladi
Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

Ann M. Graybiel
MIT, Cambridge, USA

J. Timothy Greenamyre
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA

James G. Greene
Emory University, Atlanta, USA

Rita Guerreiro
University College London, London, UK

Mark Hallett
NIH, Bethesda, USA

Hannington Kabugo
Parkinson's si Buko Uganda, Kampala, Uganda

John Hardy
University College London, London, United Kingdom

Etienne C. Hirsch
Centre de Recherche de l'Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, Paris, France

Joseph Jankovic
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA 

Christine Klein
University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany

Han Seok Ko
Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, USA

Amos D. Korczyn
Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Israel

Dimitri Krainc
Northwestern University, Chicago, USA

Emma L. Lane
Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, UK

Seung-Jae Lee
Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea

Virginia Lee
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, USA

Peter A. LeWitt
Wayne State University, Detroit, USA
Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, USA

Olle Lindvall
Lund University, Lund, Sweden

Andres Lozano
University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada 

Laura Marsh
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA

Ian Martin
Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, USA

Soania Mathur
Designing a Cure Inc., Toronto, Canada

Mark P. Mattson
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA

Wassilios Meissner
University Hospital Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France

Darren Moore
Van Andel Institute, Grand Rapids, USA

Robert Nussbaum
University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, USA

Tiago Outeiro
University Medical Center Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

Jon Palfreman
University of Oregon, Eugene, USA

Ronald F. Pfeiffer
Oregon Health and Sciences University, Portland, USA

Serge Przedborski
Columbia University Medical Center, New York, USA

Heinz Reichmann
University of Dresden, Dresden, Germany

Tamas Revesz
University College London, London, United Kingdom

Olaf Riess
University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany

Trevor Robbins
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Marina Romero Ramos
Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

Anthony Schapira
University College London, London, United Kingdom

Sonja Scholz
NIH, Bethesda, USA

Jie Shen
Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA

Todd Sherer
Michael J. Fox Foundation, New York, USA

Ira Shoulson
Georgetown University, Washington, USA

Andrew Singleton
NIH, Bethesda, USA

Richard Smeyne
Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, USA

Yoland Smith
Emory University, Atlanta, USA

Jon Stamford
Parkinson's Movement & The Cure Parkinson's Trust, London, United Kingdom

David G. Standaert
University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, USA

Leonidas Stefanis
University of Athens Medical School, Athens, Greece

Dennis Steindler
University of Florida, Gainesville, USA

Benjamin Stecher
tmrwedition.com, Toronto, Canada

Fabrizio Stocchi
IRCCS San Raffaele, Rome, Italy

A. Jon Stoessl
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

David L Sulzer
Columbia University, New York, USA

James Dalton Surmeier
Northwestern University, Chicago, USA

Michele Tagliati
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, USA

Jun Takahashi
Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

Caroline M. Tanner
The Parkinson's Institute and Clinical Center, Sunnyvale, USA

Malú G Tansey
University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, USA

Bobby Thomas
Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, USA

Eduardo Tolosa
University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

Jens Volkmann
Universitätsklinikum Wurzburg, Wurzburg, Germany

Laura Volpicelli-Daley
The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, USA

Daniel Weintraub
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA

Nick Wood
University College London, London, United Kingdom 

Zhenyu Yue
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA

Founding Editors from the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease
George Perry
University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, USA

Mark A. Smith†
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA

About the Journal

The Journal of Parkinson's Disease  (JPD) publishes original research in basic science, translational research and clinical medicine in Parkinson’s disease in cooperation with the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. It features a first class Editorial Board and provides rigorous peer review and rapid online publication.

Publication
From 2022, the journal publishes eight issues per annual volume; prior to this it was four issues per year. From 2023 the journal will proceed as an open access publication, where all articles from the 2023 volume onwards will be openly available.

Impact Factor
JPD has a Journal Impact Factor of 5.2, and a CiteScore of 6.9 (2023 Journal Citation Reports, source: Clarivate, 2023).

Abstracted/Indexed in
Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), Embase, Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, PubsHub, Science Citation Index-Expanded (SciSearch®), Scopus

 

News & Social Media
View a selection of newsletters that were sent out recently by clicking on the links:
2020: Issue 1; Issue 2; Issue 3; Issue 4; Special Issue; Parkinson Prize 2020

To receive news and JAD updates, sign up via this link: http://tiny.cc/JPDsignup

 

Find JPD on Facebook at: facebook.com/journalpd

Follow JPD on Twitter at: twitter.com/journal_pd

 

The Publisher

IOS Press publishes publishes around 90 journals and 70 books annually in a broad range of subject categories, primarily specializing in biomedical and life sciences (including neurosciences, medical informatics, cancer research, rehabilitation) and physical sciences (including computer sciences, artificial intelligence, engineering).

Headquartered in Amsterdam with satellite offices in the USA, Germany and China, IOS Press continues its rapid growth, embracing new technologies for the timely dissemination of information.

All journals are available in print and electronic format.

24 June 2015

New Study Calls for Partnering of Parkinson’s Disease Research Community with Patient Groups to Improve Effectiveness of Clinical Trials

Despite an urgent need for new medications, clinical trials in Parkinson’s disease (PD) have a relatively low rate of success. The reasons for this are complex, prompting a group of investigators from PD advocacy groups to conduct a survey of the principle stakeholders, PD scientists, patients, and caregivers, to determine some of the underlying barriers. Their results are published in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease.

24 June 2015

What Is the Role of the Gut Microbiome in Developing Parkinson’s Disease?

Gut Microbiota Interactions Chart

In recent years, an important Parkinson’s disease (PD) research focus has been on gut-related pathology, pathophysiology, and symptoms. Gastrointestinal dysfunction, in particular constipation, affects up to 80% of PD patients and idiopathic constipation is one of the strongest risk-factors for PD. Lifestyle factors such as smoking and coffee consumption, as well as blood urate levels, have been associated with a decreased PD risk.

26 February 2015

Levodopa-Carbidopa Intestinal Gel May Prove More Effective for Long-Term Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease than Standard Levodopa

Although levodopa remains the “gold standard” to effectively control motor deficits in the treatment of early stage Parkinson’s disease (PD), it loses effectiveness as the disease progresses. After four to six years of treatment with oral medications for Parkinson’s disease, about 40% of patients experience lack of muscle control (dyskinesias), end-of-dose wearing off, and fluctuations in “On/Off” states. By nine years of treatment, about 90% will suffer these effects.

25 February 2015

Parkinson’s Disease Patients Have Reduced Visual Contrast Acuity

Patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) often have difficulties with visual acuity in low-contrast images. Because they may have normal high-contrast vision, this is often overlooked during routine eye exams. In the current issue of the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease, researchers report that PD patients had significantly worse vision for low-contrast images at close (40 cm) and far (2 m) distances. Even for high-contrast images, PD patients’ vision was deficient at far distances.

Pricey Placebos

The placebo effect is a puzzling concept to get your head around. The idea that an essentially inert intervention — like a sugar pill, a saline injection, or a sham operation — can produce therapeutic benefit seems to defy common sense. But it’s very real.

Under My Skin

Many PD patients who take multiple carbidopa-levodopa pills orally every day experience sharp fluctuations in levodopa levels and suffer associated motor complications (e.g. intermittent "off" and "on" periods). Israeli-based NeuroDerm Ltd. has just reported encouraging news about its novel platform that seeks to minimize this problem by delivering liquid carbidopa-levodopa continuously over 24 hours.

Optimal Care

The current issue of the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease includes a new feature, “How I examine my patient”, a section designed to help improve the clinical skills of physicians, allied health professionals, and other professionals involved in the care of patien

18 November 2014

Simple Clinical Tests Help Differentiate Parkinson’s Disease from Atypical Parkinsonism

Two simple tests conducted during the neurological exam can help clinicians differentiate between early-stage Parkinson’s disease (PD) and atypical parkinsonism. By asking patients to perform a tandem gait test and inquiring whether they are still able to ride a bicycle, clinicians can ascertain whether medio-lateral balance is impaired, a defining characteristic of atypical parkinsonism. These findings are published in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease.

11 September 2014

Few Mild-to-Moderate PD Patients Suffer from Malnutrition, Yet Almost One Third Are at Risk

Patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) can experience difficulties with food preparation and ingestion, which could contribute to poor nutrition and place them at risk for malnourishment. Published studies have also suggested that PD is associated with low weight, however, few studies included control groups. A report published in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease counters this conclusion in patients with mild-to-moderate PD, finding that the incidence or risk of malnutrition is no different for patients with mild-to-moderate PD compared to healthy controls.

9 July 2014

Sleep Disturbances, Common in Parkinson’s Disease, Can Be Early Indicator of Disease Onset

Up to 70% of Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients experience sleep problems that negatively impact their quality of life. Some patients have disturbed sleep/wake patterns such as difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, while other patients may be subject to sudden and involuntary daytime sleep “attacks.” In the extreme, PD patients may exhibit REM-sleep behavior disorder (RBD), characterized by vivid, violent dreams or dream re-enactment, even before motor symptoms appear. A review in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease discusses the underlying causes of sleep problems in PD, as well as medications, disease pathology, and comorbidities, and describes the most appropriate diagnostic tools and treatment options.

24 June 2014

Deep Brain Stimulation Improves Non Motor Symptoms in Parkinson’s Disease as well as Motor Symptoms

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has become a well-recognized non- pharmacologic treatment that improves motor symptoms of patients with early and advanced Parkinson’s disease. Evidence now indicates that DBS can decrease the number and severity of non motor symptoms of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) as well, according to a review published in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease.

Letter from Stockholm: Disruption Ahead!

One of the most interesting events at the 18th International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders in Stockholm was a dinner hosted by the Kinetics Foundation.

Letter from Stockholm: Learning From Our Failures

The hunt for so-called disease-modifying interventions for Parkinson’s disease has not been going well of late. In Stockholm this week at the 18th International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders, some of the world’s leading researchers gave their differing analyses of what lessons should be learned from the set backs.

Letter from Stockholm: Dopamine: Carlsson’s Remarkable Chemical

The first speaker at the 18th International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders in Stockholm was Swedish Nobel laureate Arvid Carlsson. Carlsson, now in his 90s, eloquently told the story of his groundbreaking research in the 1950s that led to the dopamine theory of Parkinson’s disease. Carlsson recounted how he used the anti-psychotic medication reserpine to paralyze rabbits and how he then unfroze the animals with dopa.

13 May 2014

Exenatide Has Potential as a Disease Modifying Agent in Parkinson’s Disease

A follow-up study of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) who participated in an earlier “proof of concept” clinical trial using exenatide showed that improvements persisted twelve months after discontinuing exenatide therapy. These data provide strong encouragement for the further study of this drug in patients with PD, report researchers in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease.

Profile: Sara Riggare

In October 1984, a thirteen-year-old girl called Sara sat in a small village hall in northern Sweden enjoying a folk music concert. “Everyone was clapping their hands and stomping their feet,” Sara recalls, “and I wanted to do the same. I could clap my hands, but when I tried stomping my feet, I discovered I couldn’t. It was as if the signals couldn't go from my brain to my feet.” This is Sara’s earliest memory indicating that something was wrong.

IOS Press publishes a new edition of The Case of the Frozen Addicts

In 1985, I produced a documentary for the PBS series NOVA, entitled “The Case of the Frozen Addicts”. The film told the story of six young California drug abusers mysteriously struck with the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, a neurodegenerative condition that normally affects the elderly. Bill Langston, then an unknown clinician at the San Jose Valley Medical Center, discovered the unlucky individuals languishing in psych wards and jail cells and had temporarily reversed their symptoms with the drug L-dopa.

Glimmers of Hope

In November 1987, Lund neuroscientists grafted fetal dopamine neurons into the brain of a 47-year old PD patient, launching a hopeful new era of neural grafting aimed at reversing the symptoms of PD.

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