ear Colleagues,In 1817, James Parkinson
described the disease that was later named after him.There has been much progress
in research and treatment since his initial investigations.Today, three important
features of Parkinson’s disease may be highlighted:• First, Parkinson’s
disease is one of the few disorders of the central nervous system inwhich research has established
links between clinical symptoms and specific neuro-biological abnormalities.• Second, Parkinson’s
disease occupies a position at the border between neurology andpsychiatry, presenting
with mixed symptomatology, with both somatic and psycholog-ical components.• Third, achievements
in the understanding of the mechanisms of Parkinson’s diseasehas made it possible to
create models of the hypo- and hyperdopaminergic states.Parkinson’s disease
patients require continuous care, and the disease is encoun-tered in the practice
of many clinicians, general practitioners, neurologists, and
psychi-atrists. A number
of treatments are available, and may be pharmacological or surgical(stereotactic surgery, etc)
or involve deep brain stimulation. The disorder has become afield of interactions
between many different specialties, including neurosurgery, neuro-physiology, and neuroanatomy.The remarkable developments
in explanatory models and the exciting therapeu-tic prospects, with
well-publicized achievements, have made Parkinson’s disease an excep-tion among neuropsychiatric
disorders.This is why we felt that
it was time to review the current state of knowledge in thisfield, and that it
was well worth devoting an issue of
Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscienceto Parkinson’s disease. We
are grateful to Prof Carol Tamminga, aided by Dr BarryLebowitz, for putting
together a collection of articles written by the most prestigious spe-cialists in this field.Yours sincerely,Jean-Paul Macher, MDMarc-Antoine Crocq, MDE d i t o r i a lD2 5 3
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