Dedicated to finding a cure for the disease, the Institute got its start in the early 1980s when Dr. Langston, then at Stanford, noticed a number of young people coming into his emergency room with all the symptoms of advanced Parkinson's. It turned out that all were heroin addicts, and their problems could be traced to a tainted batch of the drug which caused the symptoms. Dr. Langston was able to use this knowledge to construct the first laboratory model of Parkinson's disease. His latest research involves a massive study of twins, traced through World War II-era military databases, in an attempt to answer once and for all the question of whether Parkinson's is genetic or environmental in origin. The results of the study showed that identical twins, who share the same genetic code, were no more likely than fraternal twins to both develop Parkinson's.
Fraternal twins are genetically the same as ordinary siblings.
Dr. Langston says this means that research can now concentrate on possible environmental causes of the disease. Next, Dr. Goodwin speaks with Dr. Stanley Fahn , a professor of neurology at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons and director of the Movement Disorder Group in New York City. Dr. Fahn reviews the current state of treatment for Parkinson's Disease. While there are many treatment options, both surgical and pharmacological, these affect only the symptoms, not the degeneration of neurons that actually causes the disease. In the late 1960s, Dr. Fahn explains, L-dopa was first used to treat Parkinson's.