Dear Ella,

How nice of you to be so concerned for your friend. Here is a link to an article regarding your question.

http://www.emoryhealthcare.org/depar...pparkinson.pdf

The article states they have found no link. The advice you have been given is excellant. I would like to add one more piece. If the doctor is basing his diagonosis on the fact that your friend's mother had Parkinson's disease, perhaps he would like to confirm the diagnosis by writing out a request for Athenia Diagnostics to perform a genetic test to prove their is a positive link to Parkinson's disease via a shared mutation in the mother and child's Parkin gene. Unless he is willing to confirm your friend has a genetic form of PD passed down from her mother, his diagnosis will always be contested.