However, the symptoms grow significantly worse toward the evening, and some patients are unable to walk. Unlike early-onset Parkinson's, these symptoms disappear after a night's sleep. In DRD patients, symptoms may begin in the right foot, spread to the right arm, then move on to the left foot and arm. Or symptoms can jump back and forth, beginning in the right foot, spreading to the left foot, then bouncing back to the right arm, then left. Dystonia in DRD cases can mirror the rigidity of Parkinson's patients.
Stress worsens the symptoms.
Most DRD patients can be maintained for years on levodopa without developing the fluctuations or dyskinesias that plague Parkinson's patients. Current treatments enable people with early-onset Parkinson's to live long lives. Obviously, though, the earlier the onset of Parkinson's, the more likely the chances of problems occurring. But a man in his 30s will be forced to live with a most unwelcome companion. Lucking, C.B. et al.