PD Can Be Stratified Into Three Distinct Groups
 

This is the link to the actual study

http://archneur.jamanetwork.com/arti...icleid=2318972

One consequence of this work is that it allows clinical trials to be more effective. By taking the PD subtype into account you reduce one level of uncertainty.

The next step is to find out whether the subtypes have different causation and require different treatment. As they say in the paper, we need to understand, and this must be the PD word of the day, "clinicopathophysiologic" clustering of PD!

John

Gerry thanks for this. I find it interesting that this study used primarily non motor symptoms as its categories and was able to predict progression. It seems a good start but somehow incomplete as a categorisation system, perhaps more like a symptom cluster for predicting outcomes.

Here is an earlier article which gives a review of other classification systems that have been developed. I wonder what system will become the standard of the future.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/781510