Parkinson’s: a site for reporting adverse drug reactions

Treatments for Parkinson’s disease, which provide motor benefits for the sick person, can also cause undesirable effects: gambling addictions, reckless purchases, hypersexuality, compulsive eating, repeated aimless rankings, etc.

According to a French study (1), 14% to 25% of patients have been confronted with one or more of these disorders, the often intimate nature of which makes it difficult to communicate with a health professional and a adaptation of the treatment to end it. To facilitate discussion, France Parkinson is launching a new online tool. This is a self-questionnaire allowing patients and their relatives to assess any problems induced by the treatments by answering about fifteen questions in complete confidentiality. 10 to 15 minutes are needed to fill it.

Of course, this self-questionnaire can in no way replace a medical consultation. It may alert a patient and his relatives, and allow discussion with the neurologist. The latter will adjust the treatment if necessary. Please note, this tool is therefore not intended to make a diagnosis, but it can be very useful for untying the floor on very intimate subjects.

For Florence Delamoye, director of France Parkinson, “this tool will allow patients but also relatives to ask questions in complete confidentiality. Has my behavior changed, am I different? (…) We try to propose a track to speak freely about a problem before it becomes serious. “, she concludes. This project was financed thanks to the support of the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines (ANSM).

As a reminder, Parkinson’s disease is a chronic neurodegenerative disease. It is characterized by the progressive disappearance of certain neurons in the brain. There are approximately 160,0000 patients in France, and 25,000 new cases are declared each year. Contrary to popular belief, Parkinson’s disease is not a disease of old age. Nearly one patient in two is diagnosed at the age of 58 on average, that is to say still of working age. 17% of patients are under 50 years old.

(1) Study on Parkinson’s and suffering in life, conducted on the initiative of France Parkinson, by the A+A research firm.