regarding clinical trials, call me selfish, i won't mind - but i take one look at the side effects of levodopa and know that i am a long way from becoming part of any clinical trial of an experimental compound.

I am in good enough shape that i lack any incentive to put myself at risk like that.

regarding any clinical trials for depression in PD, a researcher specializing in depression and PD was asked on the patientslikeme pd forum where the evidence was that had started this furor of speculation that depression is a symptom rather than a reaction.

here is his response:

"In terms of the evidence most of the studies so far have been observational studies of the symptoms of people with PD as compared to say other older people with a diagnsosis of depression."

that's it.

for that reason, i would never participate in a clinical trial for depression in PD even if i *knew* it was safe, because it is my opinion that any money being spent on clinical trials for depression in PD would be FAR better spent on the clear symptoms of PD, i.e., motor symptoms, for which we are still in dire need of an effective symptomatic treatment over the long term - by which i mean until a cure is found or until we reach the end of the average lifespan in the US, which is 77 years old (that is 44 years away for me), whichever comes first.

the same goes for *any* trial spending money on non-motor symptoms - claims that they can be the most debilitating for PWP are not supported by anything i have read - in fact, i wonder what studies those claims are based on - if anyone knows, please let me know