I'll be the first to say I am so weary of hearing about these tests to detect PD. Who wants to know they have PD, Alz., ALS, whatever, right away, when there is still no cure, no treatment that slows or stops progression? We don't even have a treatment that works well for everyone with what they call "PD" most of the time!! Knowing that you have PD earlier rather than a few years from now when it is staring you in the face is supposed to do what? Help you write your will? Pick a guardian for your kids? Please. The stress of that knowledge, in the absence of a cure or treatment that slows the disease down, would not be a good thing, but that's me. Personally I think it would be a much better expenditure of time and money to be working on an actual cure.

Now, maybe we will learn something from these "diagnostic tests" that will lead to a cure, but I haven't seen that happen for any disease. Correct me if I'm wrong, though, I'd love to be wrong on this.

And I find it VERY interesting that the few psychiatrists who have opined about this have all said that they would NOT want to know if they have the gene(s) for Alz., etc. They know what stress can do.