Rose,

I am so pleased to see you posting again. I think Debi Brooks shared this article a few weeks ago but not within this particular framework or context, so I am glad you decided to sum up what is key.

It is particularly troublesome to me that anyone at all involved in PD research have the audacity or chutzpah to question 23andMe at all. I just ran across this morsel at the Movement Disorder Society's Continuing Education site. There they casually disclose that many clinical trials have been skewed because participants really didn't have PD after all! Yes, turns out there is a little phenomenon known as SWEDDS (Subjects Without Evidence of Dopaminergic Deficit). These people were not screened before major trials and then because of their unusually slow rate of clinical "progression" set a very high bar for all else involved.

How can 23andMe do any worse? At least we are aware up front of the shortcomings involved in their approach. How long will money continue to be wasted in other research protocols?

Laura