terrific ideas - two concerns. as far as i know, no one has come up with a clinical trial design satisfactory to most as an accurate measure of the neuroprotective capability of a particular compound - there are a couple of designs out there - one utilizes a delayed start and the other utilizes a washout period at the end - however, the results of trials using these designs are considered inconclusive becauase inevitably whatever they are testing has a symptomatic effect, and they say it is not possible at this point to distinguish between that and actual neuroprotection. unless something has changed, I agree with Jaye - no one's ever actually proved that something was neuroprotective, and who knows how long that will take.

my second concern is that judging from the shift in focus from symptomatic therapies to potentially neuroprotective therapies, one would be inclined to conclude that the treatment of symptoms is well under control. But i don't think it is - levodopa has an extremely finite (for most people and particularly those who who plan to live another 30-40 years) period of usefulness sans caveats - and then one is stuck managing both the symptoms of the disease *and* the side effects of the medication, til one dies or has DBS - whichever comes first.

in my opinion, less money and precious time should be devoted to therapies meant as adjuncts to levodopa and/or reformulations of levodopa itself (because let's face it - they have been consistently failing to fix this seriously flawed drug for about 40 years - time to say *enough!*) and yes, less money on potentially neuroprotective therapies *until* they devise a method of evaluating the capability of neuroprotection that most of them agree is valid - otherwise, they are going to continue churning out trials that are deemed inconclusive, and that doesn't help anyone much - well, not PWP at least. instead, at least some off this money should be redirected toward exploring non-levodopa-centric therapies, therapies the don't compete with the disease itself for the title "most disabling," and, don't, ultimately, require brain surgery to fix.