They do not necessarily have tremors or cognitive disorders …
In France, more than 270,000 people have Parkinson’s disease, and 27,000 new diagnoses are made each year. It is often said that Parkinson is an “elderly” disease because it is a gradually disabling neurodegenerative disease often linked to aging and its risk of occurrence clearly increases with age. But Parkinson is not exclusively a “old” disease and often the first signs begin at an still “young” age.
“”Fortunately, they are not the majority of cases but we have people diagnosed at the age of 29-30 years, underlines Marie Fuzzati, scientific director of France Parkinson. And we as an association, we see an increase in cases among young people in recent years “. Early parkinson cases are often linked to genetic causes. The first manifestations of Parkinson’s disease in a young person are often different from what can be observed in an elderly patient, which can complicate the diagnosis. “”In young people, the first symptoms will rather be a gestural difficulty on one side of the body, joint pain in the shoulder or ankle, the appearance of depression …“. They generally have fewer tremors and less cognitive disorders (memory disorders, confusion, lack of attention …) than older patients.
“”In France, 50% of patients are diagnosed at 58 years on average (This is called “median age to diagnosis”, editor’s note). So these are people who still work or who are still aged to exercise a professional activity. They are also people with a significant family charge“, Restores our interlocutor. The diagnosis is all the more difficult to accept at an age where we do not expect it, with a social and professional impact of considerable disease.
Parkinson often requires multidisciplinary care: neurologist, physiotherapist, speech therapist, psychologist, social worker, alternative medicine … younger patients are also often eligible for advanced treatments (pumps, deep brain stimulation) when conventional treatments prove to be less effective.
Interview on April 3, 2025 during the press conference on “the disturbing increase in the number of sick people” organized by France Parkinson.
